Star Crossed
by 0Blue-Bird0
Summary: Luffy is given a job at the exclusive Red Line Resort by his Godfather Shanks. Zoro is engaged to be married and sent off to the Red Line Resort with his fiancee. It's only for a month, but stranger relationships have blossomed in less time. Contains ZoLu, SanUso along with some SmoAce and RoNa , and mild language and some adult themes. Finally finished with an epilogue
1. The Job Offer

So, this is a reboot of one of my first fanfics 'Island Fever', now called, 'Star Crossed'. The plot is basically the same as the last story (ie: Zoro is getting married and ends of staying at the resort when Luffy works) but I changed a lot of the story as well. I kept many of my old OCs but I also decided to mix in many more canon characters. The characters are also timeskip age so Luffy/Usopp= 19, Nami= 20, so on.

The main pairing is still ZoLu and the beta is still SanUso.

There might be some grammar mistakes in here but I've re-read this thing a few times so hopefully there won't be.

Special thanks to: **yaoifan, Primefan, Passionateinterest, PortgasDAva, moonstar the dragonwolf, Robin1771, Frostsnow22 **for the alerts/favs~!

And then more thanks to: ** .****Blaze, Everythinganime14, someonesaveme, moonstar the dragon wolf, feressaloveyaoi, Zolufangirl17** for the beautiful reviews and amazing feedback!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than the plot and a few of the OCs.

* * *

10:01 pm at East Blue Marine Academy (high school)

"Lights OUT!" The command echoed down the long hallways of the Marine Academy through the use of the speakers mounted to the ceiling at the end of each hall. Their school, a Marine JROTC boarding school, was incredibly strict, even to the end of the school year. There was less than a week before graduation but the principle had decided to keep up the curfew until the end of the year. Many students thought that it was a stupid decision, but hey, they weren't exactly there to think.

Koby, eager and studious as always, jumped out his bunk and scrambled to turn the lights off. In the bunk above his, one Monkey D. Luffy sat with the 62nd volume of _All Piece_ propped up in his lap. He looked up briefly when he heard the intercom's shout, before turning around and digging underneath his pillow. After a second, he pulled out a red flashlight and waited until the room was dark before clicking it on.

"Luffy…" Luffy heard Koby mutter from somewhere near the light switch. Naturally he ignored him, and a few seconds later, he could hear the bed underneath him creak slightly as Koby climbed into it. "You know that's against the rules. Lights out at 10." Koby whispered despite the fact that he knew he wouldn't win the argument. It was one that the two of them had quite often. Luffy, despite being 19 and the older of the two, would often do something against the rules, and Koby, the good person that he was, would often try to help his wayward friend. Unfortunately, his good intentions would normally backfire, and he would end up being caught red handed and getting some of the blame for Luffy's actions. Despite this, Koby continued to look up to Luffy like a role model. A questionable role model, but a role model all the same.

"Come on Koby!" Luffy groaned theatrically. There was a loud creak before Luffy leaned over the edge of his bed and shone the light straight at Koby's face. Koby threw an arm over his eyes and almost shouted,

"Luffy!" Luffy, meanwhile, laughed at the gesture before holding the manga volume cover out so that Koby could see it.

"Lighten up Koby!" He chuckled. "Ace just sent me the latest volume of _All Piece _and I just wanna finish it." Koby, trying valiantly to ignore the bright light in his face, frowned.

"What, does Silk finally find the treasure and become the Queen of the Space Raiders or something?" He asked dryly. Luffy, either not catching his tone, or ignoring it entirely, chuckled again. It was that weird 'shishishi' laugh of his. At times, Koby wondered if Luffy's laugh was weird like that on purpose.

"No stupid-Koby!" Koby's frown deepened at the nickname Luffy had given him. "They're only half-way there. The series is about the adventure, not the end point. Adventure is a man's romance!" Luffy explained as though it should have been an obvious matter.

Koby rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry Luffy," he finally settled for snatching the flashlight from Luffy and turning it off. "If she hasn't found it yet, I doubt she's going to find it at all. At this point it sounds like your series is going to go on forever."

"Shut up Stupid-Koby!" Luffy whispered and Koby could see Luffy reaching for him. "And gimme that flashlight!" he added as an afterthought.

"Go to sleep Lu-" Koby stopped and he heard Luffy do the same. Outside in the hallway was the sharp sound of military boots on tile. "Crap!" the two of them whispered at the same time before Koby shoved the flashlight underneath his pillow and curled up so that he faced the fall. Above him, Luffy had shoved the manga volume underneath his pillow and sprawled out on the bed. After a moment, he began faking his usual loud snores. But the both of them strained their ears until they heard the footsteps eventually stop outside their door. After a second, the door was opened, and one of the Academy teachers reached in a flicked the light on, illuminating the boy's sparse room; two desks, one bunk bed, and a closet in order to ensure the necessities and nothing more.

Koby, who was usually a light sleeper, did his best impression of a drowsy cadet. "Sir!" He scrambled out of his bed and saluted, his bare heels coming together with a thud. Luffy, to his credit, acted like he normally did in this situation and 'slept' on. And the teacher, used to the cadets like Luffy, calmly returned Koby's salute before reaching up and wrapping his hand around Luffy's ankle. He tugged on it hard enough that if Luffy had really been sleeping, it would have instantly woken him up. The only thing it really did though, was annoy him. Luffy played the part of an irate cadet and jumped out of his bed before staring at the teacher, one hand scratching his chest, the other gripping the waistband of his pants, and no salute in sight. The teacher, to his credit, just ignored him before doing an about face.

"Back to bed Cadet Rose!" he ordered before opening the door again. "And follow me Cadet Monkey." Luffy and Koby shot each other questioning looks before Koby returned to his bunk and Luffy followed the teacher out the door. Luffy and the teacher walked in silence most of the way down, but they stopped when they got to the principle's office. "You have a visitor." the teacher explained before leaving Luffy there and going back to patrol the hallways. Luffy waited until he was gone before going into the office.

"Ah, there you are Cadet Monkey." The school's principal, a laid back man named Jonathan, grinned at him over his chess set. "And I think you know who your guest is." he gesture to the man playing across from him.

"Ace!" Luffy shouted when he recognized his brother's wild hair. Ace raised one of his hands in greeting but didn't turn around.

"Be with you in a second." he explained, sounding a bit put out. Luffy walked closer and leaned over so that his head was on top of his brother's.

"Whatcha doin' Ace?" Luffy asked, winding his arms around his brother's shoulders. Ace groaned.

"Getting my ass kicked apparently." He frowned before finally admitting defeat. "Let me guess old man, you were gonna beat me in the next two turns right?" Ace smirked and Jonathan raised his eyebrows innocently.

"Oh, don't sell yourself short young man. I would have stretched it out to at least three turns. Just to preserve your dignity."

"Oh, my dignity?" Ace frowned. Luffy, meanwhile, was watching the scene and feeling a bit… left out.

"Ace," he whined and he could feel his brother's shoulders move up with the force of his sigh.

"What is it oh needy brother of mine?" Ace asked, tipping his head back so that he could see eye to eye with Luffy. His tone was annoyed but Luffy could tell my his smile that he was amused more than anything. Luffy moved his arms up so that they were around Ace's neck.

"What are you doing here Ace?" Luffy asked, cutting right to the chase.

"There's no beating around the bush with you is there?" This time, Ace was definitely amused.

"Nope." Luffy said with a straight face, and Ace started laughing.

"Come here Luffy." Ace ordered before pulling his brother's head down and kissing his ear. "You never change do you?" Luffy shook his head 'no' and Ace laughed again. "Well, since this is the final week of school, I decided that I wanted you to come with me for a few days," Ace tilted his head down and looked at Jonathan. "for a college visit." he quirked his eyebrows and Jonathan humored him with a wink. "So, what do ya' say?" Ace asked, and Luffy grinned.

"Of course, of course." he laughed before pressing his face into the crook of Ace's neck. "I love spending time with Ace." his voice was slightly muffled but the message was clear.

"Aww Luf," Ace cooed, using one of Luffy's nicknames. He kissed his brother's messy hair. Across from them, Jonathan sat watching the pair with an amused look on his face. He cleared his throat before saying,

"Aw, how sweet. Slightly incestuous, but cute none the less. Just make sure you get him back here before graduation Portgas." Jonathan warned and the two D brothers gave him twin victory signs.

"Will do old man." Ace said cheekily. "Now, go grab a few outfits and meet me by the car Luffy." he ordered and Luffy practically ran out the door and down the hallway.

* * *

10:50 pm at The New World University

So, after the strenuous task of getting his brother a visitor's pass, something that was surprisingly hard to do at night, Ace lugged his brother's suitcase around the campus before coming to a stop outside one of the rooms. "Knock knock!" he shouted before kicking in the door. A chorus of irate shouts greeted Ace when he stepped into the room.

"Dammit Portgas!" A guy with spiked red hair and ridiculous make-up shouted from his position around a lounge room table. Next to him, a man with long, wild blonde hair and bangs that covered his face, calmly placed down another card. "The doorknob is there for a goddamn reason you ass!"

"Shut it Kidd." Ace stuck his tongue out and began walking through the lounge room with the suitcase behind him. A few of the other people in the room gave him much calmer greetings. Luffy followed behind him, trying in vain to look everywhere at once. "You're just sour right now 'cause Law's kicking your ass aren't you?" Kidd gave Ace the middle finger, and Ace returned it gladly. On the blonde guy's other side, a dark haired man with a soul patch and a spotted fur cap, titled his hat up.

"You hit the nail on the head Mr. Portgas." Law grinned. "If we were playing strip poker, then Mr. Kidd would be down to his socks." Ace laughed when he heard this; as did a few of the people standing up in the kitchen area. Luffy's didn't hear Kidd's reply because Ace had opened the door to his room and was settling the suitcase on top of his bed.

"We'll unpack in the morning." Ace smiled before grabbing Luffy's arm. "Here let me introduce you to everybody." he led his baby brother back out but stopped when he saw the scene in the living room. The red head, Kidd, was cursing up a storm so foul that Ace had to rein in the urge to cover Luffy's ears. He was also trying his hardest to strangle Law, who for some reason, looked totally calm about the whole situation. Or maybe he was just calm because the blonde from earlier had grabbed Kidd and was physically holding him back from throttling Law.

"Come on Killer!" a pink haired girl with a piercing under her eye yelled from the other side of the room. "Let him go! We need some entertainment tonight." a few people around her laughed and cheered. She nudged the girl standing next to her with her arm. "Hell, I'll even put $20 on Kidd." The other girl, another red head, laughed.

"Are you sure about that Bonney? Law's crazy. I wouldn't want to bet against him." Law, from his seat at the table, tipped his hat at her.

"Thank you for the encouraging words, Ms. Nami." he said with a heavy bit of sarcasm.

"Hell, I'll put $20 on Killer kicking _both_ of their asses!" Another boy piped up, and his words were met with even more laughter. Finally, deciding that enough was enough, Ace stepped in.

"Alright, alright everyone." Ace cut in. He let got of Luffy's arm and walked over to Law's side. He picked him up with an absurd ease and tossed him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Luffy heard a few whistles and catcalls, mainly from the girls in the room, before Ace placed Law a safe distance away. "Now," he declared. "Both of you assholes shut up. I want to introduce you guys to my little brother anyway." At the last statement, several of the people in the room looked around and finally seemed to notice the teen who'd been tagging along with Ace.

"So you're Ace's brother?" The red head from earlier, Nami, smiled. She handed her drink to the pink hair girl before walking over to Luffy and looking him up and down. "Wow, you're a cutie." she pulled at his cheeks and mock pouted at Ace. "You told me a lot about him Ace, but not how cute he was." Ace chuckled.

"What can I say Nami? The kid's cute, but he's got nothing on me, of course." Ace winked, and several people, Nami included, snorted. "Anyway," Ace came forward and wrapped his arm around Luffy's shoulders. "Luffy, this is Law," he pointed to them as he named them, "Kidd," he pointed to the blonde man behind Kidd, "Killer, Nami," he pointed to the pink haired girl, "Bonney," to the boy who had bet on Killer earlier, "Kohza," then to a couple of people Luffy hadn't noticed until then, "Apoo, Tyra, Janet, Tony, Danni, Elysia-" In his defense, Luffy tried to match the names up with the faces, but he lost focus halfway through and restorted to giving everyone a blank stare. "-and Vi-" Ace paused. "Hey, where's Vivi?"

"Right here Ace!" Vivi ran out of one of the surrounding rooms, her cell phone clasped to her chest. "Had to make a-" she gasped when she saw Luffy. "Is that your brother?" she asked, and Ace nodded.

"Sure is." Ace turned back to everyone else. "Now at this point, he's probably forgotten all of your names so let's just skip the re-introduction and gets some more booze!" There was more cheering and Ace shoved Luffy towards the kitchen.

* * *

11:40 pm

"And then I swear, I thought she was going to slap me but imagine my surprise when it turns out she _likes_ blowfish." Ace concluded, and majority of the group burst out laughing. At this point, most of the people had left. Only Vivi, Kohza, Kidd, Nami, and Bonney remained. Killer, and Law had gone to bed. Everyone who was still awake was sitting at the lounge table. "And let me just tell you, that fish wasn't the only thing blown that night." Ace winked and Kidd elbowed him in the neck, careful not to spill any of his beer. Both of them were way over their limit, but neither particularly cared.

"You're a pig Ace!" Bonney shouted, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face. She had forgone her glass a few drinks ago and was now clutching bottle of alcohol instead. Next to her Nami and Vivi were sharing disapproving looks. There were the least wasted of the group and both had retained enough sense to stop drinking before they ended up totally smashed.

"That's nasty Ace!" Nami said, but Kohza started to laugh.

"Just leave him be Nami, he's having fun. 'Sides Ace is just jealous." Kohza said, a smile of his beet red face. When he saw her skeptical look, Kohza just nodded at her lap, or rather, who was laying there. Luffy, who had drifted off awhile ago was now resting with his head on Nami's lap and his legs on Vivi's.

"Oh, him." she shrugged and Vivi began giggling. Unfortunately, while Nami could drink most people under the table, Vivi was a lightweight and the few drinks she'd had at the beginning of the night had left her a bit… loopy. "Well considering that he's the only guy, or girl," she glared at a totally unabashed Bonney, "who _hasn't _tried to feel me up tonight, I figured he deserved it." Next to her, Vivi continued to giggle and reached over so that she could comb her fingers through Luffy's hair. She began humming a quiet tune as she began tracing the scar underneath his eye. Meanwhile, Ace started up on yet another story.

"What time is-hic it Ace?" Vivi interrupted, her face was a nice shade of red. Ace raised an eyebrow.

"I dunno. Why?" Vivi giggled again before shaking her head.

"N-nothing." she hiccupped again. "I just-just expect-hic expecting someone. I-I called-called someone special for you."

"A stripper?" There was a slight pause and then everybody burst out laughing again, the alcohol in their bodies making everything sound funnier than it actually was. "So, seriously, who was it?" Vivi shook her head again and her blue curls spilled over her shoulders. But she spoke anyway,

"It-it's the guy-hic, from the the-the photo next to your b-bed." Ace made a face as he began thinking and after a moment something seemed to come to him.

"Bedside-" he suddenly chocked. "Shit! Vivi, you didn't!" he looked at her with wide eyes and her buzz seemed to fade for a few moments.

"What do you-" she asked, a hurt look on her face.

"The photo with the old man right? Grey hair and beard, scar around the eye?" Everybody was suddenly watching the conversation between them. Vivi held her hands up over her mouth.

"He's your grandfather right?" she asked, sounding slightly hysterical. Nami heard this and put a hand on her shoulder. "I thought-"

"That's the problem!" Ace groaned dramatically before flopping forward onto the table. Everybody, with the exception of Vivi, exchanged confused looks. "Garp is-"

"ACE! LUFFY!" Ace shot back up, his eyes wide and his face about two shades paler. Bonney snorted as she spilled her drip down her front and Kohza, involuntarily of course, jumped and threw his arms around a surprised Kidd. Nami and Vivi both squealed as Luffy shot out of their lap and almost brained himself on the table. He made a surprised noise before looking at Ace. Ace jumped up and shot towards the front door. Across from him the doors to Law and Killer's rooms slammed open.

"Portgas! What-" The shouted at the same time before they were both cut off.

"WHERE ARE YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!"

"And that," Ace hissed, bracing his back against the door. "Is why I never invited my grandfather over here." He looked around for a second before spotting Law and Killer. "You guys! Get over here and help me with the door!" he hissed.

"Christ Portgas!" Kidd hissed, not moving from his spot. "I thought he was a marine or something."

"He is." Ace said grimly. "He's also fucking insane." Suddenly the noises outside the door stopped. Then everything went to hell.

"WHO THE HELL-" The door shuddered and Ace was almost thrown. "ARE YOU CALLING INSANE?"

"Guys! Help me!" Ace shouted, and this time, they didn't hesitate to put their weight against the door. But even with Ace, Kidd, Killer, and Law using their full weight, the door continued to shake and rattle. Ace quickly scanned the room for his brother. "Where's Luffy?" he asked Nami.

"Your room." she said, still trying to console Vivi who was sitting there with tears in her eyes. Vivi meanwhile was babbling apologies about 'how she didn't know' and 'she would never do it again' and 'she was so, so sorry'. But Ace ignored her, not because he was _too_ mad at her (well he was mad, but Vivi was literally the personification of human kindness and he knew that she hadn't intended for this to happen, at all), but because keeping Garp out _literally _took all of his concentration.

Meanwhile, Garp had stopped shouting.

"Fucking. Hell." Kidd shouted as the door shuddered again. "The fuck is with your old man Ace?"

"I believe what Mr. Kidd is asking is what kind of steroids your grandfather's taking Mr. Portgas." Law asked calmly, a slightly deranged smile on his face.

"He has _always_ been like this." Ace shouted, weary of the fact that his grandfather had stopped shouting. He was even more worried when Garp stopped shoving against the door as well. "Shit. Get ready guys." he said grimly. The next moment, all four of them shouted in surprise as, quite literally, a fist burst through the door between Kidd and Ace's heads.

"OPEN UP YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!" Garp roared before quite literally tearing a hole through the door. Ace, Law, Kidd, and Killer scrambled away from the door. Kohza, Vivi, Nami, and Bonney, meanwhile, were huddled against the back wall, wondering exactly what kind of monster Vivi had unleashed upon them. They watched in silence as the door to their dorm room was quite literally ripped off of its hinges.

When Garp stalked in, he was the very definition of intimidating. He stood a few heads taller than everyone else in the room and his upper body, even through the layers of his suit, was a wall of solid muscle. His face was twisted into a scowl and his eyes were blazing. "Ace." he growled, stalking forward. His fist were clenched tight and the tendons were standing out on the back on his hands. He didn't stop until he reached his grandson. Ace, admirably, stood his ground. "You've got some nerve boy." he said, his language was surprisingly cleaner than it had been when he was on the other side of the door. "Not answering my phone calls or letters. Hell, Makino told me that you've been ignoring her too."

"Well-" Ace was cut off as Garp seized him by the front of his shirt and lifted him up as easily as Ace had lifted Law up earlier. In the background, his friends made various noises of protest, but Garp ignored them and instead brought his other fist up and socked his grandson with a 'fist of love'. Ace fell to the ground with a crash and this time, Kidd and Killer moved forward.

"Woah-" Killer spoke for the first time that night. "Stop." he told Garp but the old man just brushed past him.

"This is between me and my stupid grandson." he said calmly before delivering another 'fist of love' to Ace's head. And when the older teen was subdued, aka rolling around on the ground clutching his head and cursing Garp to hell, Garp straightened up. "LUFFY!" he shouted. "GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE NOW. IF I HAVE TO LOOK FOR YOU THEN I'LL GIVE YOU THE SAME TREATMENT I GAVE ACE!" Garp waited for a few seconds, and then Luffy emerged from Ace's room, looking positively terrified. Garp approached him, but instead of a 'fist of love' he just picked Luffy up and dumped him on the couch. "I'm not mad at you right now." he informed him, to Luffy's surprise. "But let this be a lesson! You stop returning my calls-" Garp pointed at Ace. "and you'll end up like him!" Luffy nodded so quickly that the other people in the room worried about him getting whiplash. "Good!" Garp planted his fists on his hips, tipped his head back, and laughed. "Bwa-hahaha!" he roared before spotting a drink on the lounge table. "Ah, don't mind if I do." he said loudly before snatching it up and downing it. There was roughly 30 seconds of complete silence before,

"You've got to be kidding me." Bonney finally said. She glanced between Ace, Garp, and Luffy. "You have got to be kidding me." she said again, and this time Kohza backed her up.

"W-what's going on?" he asked, hoping one of the three would answer.

"Hmm." Garp raised an eyebrow and stuck his finger up him nose. "What do ya' mean?"

"What do we mean?" Kidd shouted, his tone was a mix of outrage and disbelief. Killer laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Look at what you just did!" He gestured to the hole in the wall. A hole that until a few hours ago, had been a door way. The actual door was a pile of wood just inside the doorway. Then he gestured to Ace, who was picking himself off of the floor with Nami and Vivi's help. And then to Luffy, who was curled up on the couch, looking like he wished he was anywhere but there.

"It was very extreme sir." Vivi said from her position near Ace. Ace just snorted.

"This is nothing. He's always been extreme like this." Ace got to his feet. "Anyway, spit it out old man." Ace grumbled and wiped the blood off of his mouth, "Why did you want to see me and Luffy?" And the look Garp gave the two of them was anything but friendly.

"Glad you asked. Since I couldn't get the two of you into a military camp this summer, I decided to get you a summer job." His smile widened. "You start next week." There was a slight pause then…

"WHAT?"

* * *

Wow, this was much longer then I thought it would be. I wanted to do a chapter on explaining how Luffy's got his job at the resort and it ends up being 4000+ words long. I also took a lot of freedom with boarding schools and college dorms so please forgive me for any glaring mistakes I made. And for those who don't know, Silk is a character that Oda made for Romance Dawn. She acts like Nami but she's a swordsman like Zoro. There's actually an OVA with her in it somewhere.

I also planned on putting a bit of Zoro's POV in here but that would have been much too long so~ next chapter then! But seriously, I've always wanted to write a scene like in the last half, where Ace and Luffy are hanging out and Garp burst through a wall and beats them up, and everyone's horrified by it all. So that's a bit of shamelessness on my part. Anyway, I'll try my best to make this story a weekly update.

And I would appreciate any feedback at all, whether it's an alert/fav or whatever. Reviews are especially appreciated~


	2. Meet the Roronoas

So, here it is, the first of Zoro's chapters. The only thing I'll say is that its not as flat out fun as Luffy's chapter was because I had to introduce more characters and Zoro's character type isn't exactly fun, so~ It's also much shorter.

Just keep in mind that this chapter takes place at the same time the previous chapter does

Anyway, there are important character notes at the end. The real fun starts in the next chapter!

* * *

12:40 pm (Koshiro's Dojo)

"First position!" Zoro shouted, shifting forward. He held a wooden sword straight out in front of him. A chorus of shouts answered his order as a dozen kids mimicked his position. "Second position!" Zoro shouted again. He thrusted the wooden sword outwards before returning it to his side. The kids mimicked him again. There were a few cries as a few of the students whacked each other, but there was nothing serious enough to make Zoro look back. "Repeat!" he ordered. And this time, he did look around. He began walking through the rows and correcting the mistakes he saw. "Back straight Isaac." he ordered at a half-slouched boy. "Chin up Keri." Keri squeaked under his fierce gaze but raised her chin nonetheless. He continued to correct the children until he heard a knock against the door. "Keep practicing." Zoro ordered before walking over and sliding the door open. "What do you want Tashigi?" he asked his cousin, folding his arms over his chest.

Tashigi, who by the look of it had been in the middle of practice herself, brushed past him. "Your friends are here." she said with a monotone voice she normally used around him. "The blonde ones." Zoro scowled when he realized who she was talking about. He walked into the hallway before stopping and turning back.

"Wa-"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll watch your class for you." Tashigi said without looking back. "Alright First Years. New Exercise!" Zoro watched her for a second before he started towards the front of the dojo. On the way there, he by passed the kitchen and spotted his older cousin, and Tashigi's sister, Kuina leaning against the stove with a cookbook in hand. He stopped in the doorway and waited for her to look up. When she did look up, she seemed generally surprised to see him.

"What? Is class over?" Kuina asked cautiously, giving him the same kind of look you'd give an unpredictable animal.

"No, I was just going to find Dartboard." he said and Kuina snorted at his nickname for Sanji.

"I don't know why you're so mean to him Zoro." she pulled her hair back from her face. "I _like _Sanji." She said, keeping her tone light and neutral. Zoro snorted at her.

"Well, he pisses me off." Zoro said, leaning against the wall and closing his good eye.

"And that's _why_ I like him. He's funny too." Kuina said before shrugging. She put the book down and waited for Zoro to either continue speaking or leave.

"Katherine's also here." The statement came out of nowhere and Kuina was caught off guard by it. She watched Zoro's face carefully for his reaction. Nothing. Pretty odd when someone was talking about their fiancée of all people.

"Are you going to go see her?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest. She leaned back so that she was mirroring Zoro's position. Zoro shrugged at her before turning on his heel and leaving the kitchen. Kuina followed behind, knowing that despite his attitude, he hadn't completely shut her out yet. After all, she was used to her cousin's strange behavior by now.

Zoro was an extreme introvert just like their uncle Mihawk. He didn't play well with others, didn't speak outside of his teaching sessions (honestly, she'd been surprised when Zoro had struck up a conversation with her), and had a nasty habit of getting into fights. And that was just inside the dojo and around his family! When it came down to stranger trying to get him to open up, or at least speak, well let's just say that Kuina wouldn't bet in the stranger's favor. And speaking of strangers…

"Hello Katherine. Sanji." Kuina greeted them once her and Zoro had exited the house and reached the front gates. Next to her, Zoro folded his arms over his chest and scowled at Sanji.

"Cheese head." he grunted.

"Mosshead." Sanji said calmly before turning to Kuina. "Ah! I'm sorry about acknowledging that ape before you Miss Kuina~!" Sanji clapped his hands together and gushed. Kuina humored him.

"Don't worry about it Sanji." she said before glancing back up at her unresponsive cousin. "Katherine," she said suddenly. "You look thirsty, let me get you a drink." despite the girls meek protests, Kuina grabbed her by the arm and walked her back to the dojo.

Back at the gate, Sanji and Zoro stood in silence for a few seconds before Sanji pulled a cigarette out of his breast pocket and stuck it in his mouth. He was about to replace the pack when he paused. After a few moments of consideration, he held out the pack towards Zoro in an offhanded manner. Zoro, wordlessly, took one and stuck it in his mouth. Sanji reached into one of his pants pockets and pulled out a lighter. He lit both his and Zoro's cigarettes before slipping it back into his pocket. There was a minute of silence as both men took deep drags of their cigarettes. Neither one of them looked at each other because, well… that's just how they were.

They weren't friends. At least, not in the conventional way, because honestly, Zoro didn't like Sanji. And Sanji didn't like Zoro. They would go out drinking sometimes, and they would occasionally find a topic that they could bitch to each other about without arguing over it. Hell, they didn't even respect each other. They simply understood.

Zoro was the introvert who was so caught up in his own dream, that he would ignore others around him. People annoyed him. It was hard for him to explain it any clearer than that. And it was mostly because most people didn't have dreams that were larger than life like his own was. After all, not everyone could become the World's Strongest Swordsman. Tashigi and Kuina were living proof of that.

Sanji was at least smart enough to act sociable. In public, he could act like a gentleman and would often fawn over and seduce women, beautiful or not. But the truth was that Sanji was a thug. A thug with a good taste palette, but a thug none the less. Which wasn't entirely his fault. Because being raised by a kitchen full of convicts had a habit of doing that to people.

And so they ended up being, in a way, therapeutic for each other. Sanji helped Zoro because there were far and few people that Zoro could go all out on when fighting. Sanji's dream wasn't anywhere close to Zoro's but his strength more than made up for it in Zoro's mind. Zoro helped Sanji because Sanji didn't have to put on fronts in front of him; no gentleman acts, no refinement, no anything. But it was exactly why they hated each other too. Sanji was a pompous ass and a gallant, and Zoro was a simplistic moron with a strange sort of superiority complex.

"So," Sanji blew out a cloud of smoke. "Drinks tonight?" he suggested, his oddly curled eyebrow going up slightly. Zoro shrugged.

"Don't know." he finally muttered. "My mother had some sort of dinner announcement." The two lapsed back into silence that was only broken by the occasional inhale-exhale.

"I'll just go with you then. We'll leave for drinks afterwards." Sanji suggested, although it didn't sound like much of a suggestion. Zoro just went along with it.

"Whatever."

* * *

12:55 pm (Koshiro's Dojo's Kitchen)

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Kuina was busy pseudo-interrogating Katherine. "So," she said, pulling a pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator. "Why exactly did you come here?" Kuina asked as she poured out two glasses. She handed one to Katherine before waiting patiently for a response.

"To talk to my fiance." Katherine said before taking a sip. "I'm allowed, aren't I?" she glanced up at Kuina from beneath false lashes. And Kuina was struck with a wave of whenever negative emotion came up whenever she was in Katherine's presence. She always wanted to label it as something easy to manage like anger or dislike, but in the back if her mind, she knew what it was; fear.

Honestly, she could never place what it was about the girl that just rubbed her the wrong way. It certainly wasn't anything appearance-wise because the girl looked like someone you'd expect to walk out of a small town pageant. Katherine had that sort of blonde hair that people in prose-filled romance novel would have called 'flaxen' and eyes that were too blue to be anything but contacts. No… it was just something with the way she carried herself, the way she talked, the way she observed others. If Kuina had to place where she'd seen behavior like that, then she'd point out several of her own family members. The most prominent being her aunt, and Zoro's mother, Jackie Roronoa. The next would have been her uncle Dracule, and her cousin Perona, both of whom had nasty habits of psychoanalyzing then picking at people's insecurities or weaknesses.

But after a pause, Kuina decided to answer Katherine. "Oh, you're allowed. I just didn't expect you to follow me if you were here to talk to him." She said smoothly before replacing the pitcher in the refrigerator. Katherine smiled at her over the brim of her cup. It was a dangerous smile.

"Well, I did come to ask you something too." when she smiled, there were quite a few more teeth involved and her expression was a little too sweet. "I heard that you weren't taking part in the wedding and I had a favor to ask of you." she cooed, her voice as sweet as honey. Kuina felt Goosebumps rise on her arms but didn't let it show in her face.

"How much of a favor?" Kuina returned, her eyes narrowing. She didn't bother bringing up the fact that she didn't approve of the marriage because this she'd already made her views clear enough several times before. Katherine held her gaze.

"Just a little one." she smiled again. "So see, I was talking to Mother," and by 'Mother', she meant Jackie Roronoa, "And we agreed that even though it was going to be a small occasion," Kuina resisted the urge to snort. "that it would be better if we had a few more people to pad out the bridal party." This time, Kuina did snort. As much one-sided love had for her cousin, she wasn't about to got through the hell of this wedding just because her cousin had problems playing nice with others. Katherine continued even after her snort. "Cousins Perona and Tashigi have already agreed to the plan, so I thought that it would be proper to invite you in as well." Funny, Tashigi hadn't mentioned this to her. Maybe that was why her sister seemed to be in a funk. Kuina, who was nearly done with her drink, put the glass down and shrugged.

"Katherine I really don't-" This time a stronger shiver ripped through Kuina and she looked at Katherine with wide eyes. Katherine had tilted her head to the side and was regarding her with cold eyes. The smiled was frozen on her face and her hands were clenched tight around the glass. Kuina took in her appearance before letting her own feral grin onto her face. She hoped it was enough to cover the sudden and irrational fear she felt. "You know what, I think I will join you. Thank you for the offer."

Katherine laughed. "So glad we had this conversation."

* * *

10:00 pm (The Water 7 restaurant)

A heavy silence settled over the group and the tension was so thick, it could have been cut with one of Sanji's expensive knifes. It was partially because no one at the table actually liked each other. While, Zoro, Kuina, Tashigi, were all cousins (or sisters), none of them particularly enjoyed each other's company for extended periods of time.

Zoro tolerated Kuina at best (when he was younger he had respected her, but that feeling had faded over time), Tashigi annoyed him (she was always challenging him, but never strong enough to beat him), and he outright hated Perona (it would have been much faster to name things he _didn't_ hate about her).

Kuina admittedly liked Zoro (even though he was basically a brick wall with a face 98% of the time), she loved her sister in small doses (Tashigi just had a habit of being a little _too_ straight and narrow for her), and she also hated Perona (instinctually of course, although that laugh of hers _was_ incredibly annoying).

Tashigi looked at Zoro like an enemy (the fact that he had her sister's prized sword certainly didn't help), she liked being around Kuina when she wasn't acting flippant (which wasn't often), and she tried to tolerate Perona ( but the girl's demeanor often gave her chills).

And Perona? Well, she just hated all of them. None of them were any fun (in her sense of the word).

In addition to that, none of them, besides Zoro and Kuina, particularly liked Sanji and so they had elected to ignore his presence from the moment he had arrived. Tashigi and Kuina both shared an inherent distrust of Jackie Roronoa and would avoid any attempt the woman made at speaking to them.

And then to put it simply, no one liked Katherine. The relationship between her and Jackie was complex and hard to explain. Kuina and Tashigi shared a very strong distrust of her (even Tashigi who hated to say things like 'hate' might have made an exception for her; Kuina would admit to hating her outright). Even Perona was weary of her. Sanji, treated her like any other woman but sometimes wished that she was a man so that he could just ignore her (because Zeff had taught him that you _always_ acknowledged women, no matter who they were. Men, on the other hand, could burn in hell). Even Zoro just seemed to barely tolerate her (which lead to literally no one, sans Jackie Roronoa, being able to understand _why_ he was marrying her).

"Tell me again Sanji," Jackie said, cutting through the silence. "Where exactly did you work before your internship here?" Sanji, who was taken aback at being addressed straightened up.

"Well, when I was younger, I worked with my guardian Zeff at the Baratie restaurant," Jackie hummed when she recognized the name and everyone else, sans Zoro, made a small 'oh' noise. "Afterwards, I began working at the Red Line Resort as one of the head chefs, until I got my internship with Ivankov." Jackie's face lit up at the mention of 'Red Line Resort'.

"Oh," she cooed. "That's good then, you _can_ show everyone around then." Sanji choked on his drink slightly and Kuina looked up.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"Oops, guess I spoiled the surprise." Jackie said, pushing the food on her plate around with her fork. "No need for putting it off now. I've booked you all a month long stay at the Red Line Resort. You'll be leaving in about a week in a half and you'll be back right before the wedding."

"But, why?" Tashigi asked. Next to her, Perona leaned back into her seat and fixed Jackie with an odd look.

"Why else?" Jackie said, flashing a shark-like grin. "For a romantic getaway of course."

* * *

Jeezus, I just realized that I gave Zoro the family from hell here. Anyway a few important notes:

So, just a character warning, but Jackie Roronoa (OC) is a Sociopath. While Katherine (OC) is a Psychopath. There are marked differences between the two and I'll do my best to portray those differences. Zoro is also an introvert in this story (because that's probably how he would have ended up being if Luffy hadn't recruited him) the fact that, like in canon, he's spent two years training with Mihawk certainly won't help.

So anyway, thank you for reading~ The next chapter will be up next Thursday!

Lastly, I'd like to thank **NoLifeButLives**, **Zolufangirl17**, **feressaloveyaoi,** and **.Blaze**. for their wonderful reviews~ They're really great motivators!

Until next time!


	3. A Case of the Mondays

Haha, well it looks like I'm putting off Zoro and Luffy meeting until the next chapter. It's for the best though. The scene I have in mind for them will go over much easier if it's in Zoro's POV. And anyway, this chapter's basically where I introduce the most prominent characters in the story. After that, there might be a few more characters thrown in, but it's mainly between these guys.

In this chapter, I'll also explain some of the mechanics of the Red Line Resort (something I failed to do last time around). If there's anything that I didn't explain well enough or that's confusing, please PM me and I'll fix it. Also a bit of news at the end concerning my update schedule (don't worry, it's nothing bad)

Anyway, other than warnings for language, this chapter's pretty clean.

A big thanks to **Feressaloveyaoi,** **Zolufangirl17,** **.Blaze, **and** NoLifeButLives** for the reviews and messages. It's the same people but you guys are a great mood lifter so thanks~

* * *

2: 47 pm (Red Line Resort Docks)

"My, my, it's good to see you boys again." Shanks chuckled, giving both Ace and Luffy one armed hugs as they stepped off of the small motorboat with their luggage. Ace, still in a foul mood because of Garp, returned his hug grudgingly but Luffy dropped his suitcase and practically threw himself at Shanks.

"I'msogladtoseeyou-what'sbeenhappeninglately-" The sentences came out of Luffy's mouth in a steady but unintelligible rush of words. And since Luffy was shouting right in Shanks' ear, Shanks felt the need to quiet Luffy down before he went deaf.

"Woah, woah Anchor!" Shanks used his old nickname for Luffy and Luffy frowned. "Hold your horses."

"Don't call me Anchor Shanks!" he shouted, his arms still around Shanks' neck in a vice-grip. "I'm too old for that!" Shanks raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Ohh," he drawled, his tone carefree and slightly condescending. "Can you swim?"

"No-but-"

"Anchor." this time, Shanks stuck his tongue out. "An-chor~" he stretched out the word. "An-"

"Shut up Shanks!" Luffy let go of Shanks' neck and stuck his tongue out too. Luffy pulled down on his bottom eyelid for extra emphasis.

Ace, from his position at the edge of the dock, watched as the argument in front of him quickly deteriorated into something you'd see on an elementary school playground. It was a bit amusing at first, but he finally decided to stop them when they had resorted to shouting 'Nuh Uh' and 'Yeah Huh' at each other.

"Wow~" Ace said loudly, picking up Luffy's suitcase and pushing past the two of them before walking up the dock. "This place looks really nice." he told Shanks over his shoulder.

Which was true of course. After Garp had forced him to come here for the summer, Ace had decided to look up the place they'd be working at. And it turns out that the Red Line Resort, started roughly 12 years ago, was one of the world's largest international resorts. The actual resort was over 25 stories tall with 800 hotel rooms, a theatre, two Olympic pools, a casino, as well as dozens of shops and other sources of entertainment. The land it was situated on was fantastic was well, with a full golf course, four basketball courts, three tennis courts, and several areas dedicated to miscellaneous sports. The resort had several stores and shops dedicated to pet and child care in order to cater to the family crowd.

The surrounding islands, while not directly affiliated with The Red Line Resort, were home to several groups of people native to the tropic area. People from the resort would sometimes travel to the surrounding islands to 'immerse themselves in the culture' of the people living there. So tourism from the Resort usually ended being a large part of the area's economy. The Resort itself had earned a reputation of being almost impossible to get a reservation to because most of the people staying there were celebrities and powerful politicians. Or at least, that's what Ace had read.

"Yeah, isn't it?" Shanks asked, letting go of Luffy and walking up to Ace. He slapped him on the back. "Don't worry, it'll be fun to work here." he laughed before turning to the man operating the boat. "Thank you for the ride Wyper. Tell Mr. Gan Fall to come over some time." he waved and Wyper just nodded his head before starting the boat up again. Shanks glanced around him. "Now where is that damn car?" he said, the smile still on his face.

"You mean that one?" Luffy asked, appearing by Shanks' other side. He pointed up the hill at white sports car that was moving towards them and Shanks nodded.

"That's it for sure." Shanks grinned, walking up to it when the car had pulled to a stop in front of him. "Good to see you Smoker." Shanks said breezily, leaning into the car through the passenger window. Smoker, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else right then, just grunted. He glanced past Shanks at Ace and Luffy who were dragging their suitcases to the car and babbling about something or another.

"Are those the new employees?" Smoker asked, taking the cigar out of his mouth and grinding the tip into the ashtray. "Mr. Garp's grandkids?"

"Yep." Shanks said, a large grin sliding onto his face. "Which reminds me-"

"No." Smoker said, a frown already on his face. It was an unspoken rule amongst the employees of the Red Line that whenever Shanks asked for something with _that_ look on his face, then you immediately either refused him or got the hell out of there. And unfortunately, Smoker only had one of the two options.

"Can't say no." Shanks said without missing a beat. "Bosses' orders." Smoker scowled at him but Shanks remained shamelessly undeterred.

"Relax Smoker. You just have to train them and get them ready to work within the week. Simple no?"

"With the rumors I've heard about them from Garp-" Smoker said dryly. "It sounds anything but simple."

"What does?" Ace said, sliding into the backseat of the car. He soundly only slightly more chipper than he had a few minutes ago. Luffy slid in with him before climbing over his lap so that he could sit behind the passenger seat. "You could have just gotten in on the other side." Ace reminded Luffy as he buckled himself into the car. Luffy retorted with something stupid and so Smoker just tuned both of them out. Shanks opened up the car and slid in next to him, a pleased look on his face.

* * *

3:20 pm (Red Line Resort Employee Lodging)

Luffy stood outside of the room that Shanks had given him and Ace and plucked at the Resort uniform. It was a red shirt, black vest and pants combo. The little white nametag had 'Luffy' written in bold red letters. Next to him, Ace was wearing the same look of distaste. When Luffy had asked him why earlier, Ace had told him that it was because Whitebeard didn't make them wear uniforms on the construction sites.

Standing a few feet in front of them was Smoker and a strange girl. Smoker was standing with his back ramrod straight and his arms folded tightly over his chest. Instead of a vest like Luffy's and Ace's, he was wearing a long sleeve black jacket. His nametag labeled him 'Head of Security'. The girl was also wearing a jacket like Smoker's except her nametag just said 'Management- Lee-Ann'. She was a head shorter than Smoker, but looked like she could be his age. Her long black hair was pulled up into a messy bun and held back by a black visor. She was currently staring at something to the left of their group. Both of them had several walkie talkies clipped to their belts.

When he saw that he didn't have Ace or Luffy's full attention, Smoker's frown deepened. "Hey. Eyes forward!" he snapped at them. Luffy, from a force of habit, immediately looked forward. Ace, on the other hand, rolled his eyes.

"Oh, great." he said loudly. "_Another_ hard ass." Yep, Ace was still mad about Garp. The comment was met with almost total silence; almost because the girl standing at Smoker's right let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. After that, the only sound that could be heard was Smoker grinding his teeth. For a few moments, Smoker prayed in vain for the patience he'd need to teach a smartass like Portgas. After all, it wasn't like he had the authority to fire the brat.

"As much as I'm going to regret this," Smoker said loudly, sending Ace a dirty look. "I'm going to have to split you two up." Ace and Luffy started protesting but Smoker spoke over them. "Mr. Shanks wanted me to train you both-"

"Nononono-"

"Hey! I wanna stay with Ace!"

"So it'll be my duty to make sure-" Smoker's volume, and blood pressure, was rising.

"Is there something wrong with your head Smokey?"

"I'm tired Smokey. Is it lunch yet?"

"SHUT UP." Smoker finally snarled. The two D brothers shut their mouths with audible clicks. "Shut up both of you. This is your job training as specified by Shanks. If you bastards have a problem then _bring it up with him_." Smoker finished, part of him just wishing that either Luffy or Ace would be stupid enough to interrupt him again. Luckily for them, or rather unluckily for him, they had more sense than that and stayed quiet. "Now, Ace, you'll be training with me. I'll teach you security measures and make you a temporary part of management. Got it?" Ace mock saluted him and Smoker felt his head throb some more. "And Luffy, you'll be training with Lee-Ann-"

"Lee." the girl piped up. She missed Smoker's glare because her eyes were trained on a hanging portrait on their right.

"_Lee_ here is part of the customer/employee relations. She'll walk you through parts of her job and teach you how to deal with complaints against Resort employees. You can handle at least that, can't you?" Smoker asked, and this time, it was hard to tell if he was talking to Luffy or to Lee. Lee nodded anyway, finally turning to look at them. She shot Luffy a questioning look. "Fine. Let's go Portgas." he said, walking down the hallway and towards the elevator. Ace rolled his eyes but followed anyways.

"I'll see you tonight Luffy." Ace promised before the elevator doors closed.

When they were gone, Lee began walking in the opposite direction and towards the other employee lodging. "Let's go Luffy." she called over her shoulder. When Luffy caught up with her, she turned to give him another look. "So, what's up with you?" she asked in a completely neutral tone. She knocked on the first door they came to. "Arnold? Are you in?" she called out. There was no reply.

"What do you mean 'up with me'?" Luffy asked, interlacing his fingers behind his head. Lee shrugged and continued down the hall.

"Well, I figured that there must have been something wrong with you." she knocked on another door but didn't hear anything. "Since Smoker wanted me to coach you and all. So, what is it?" She knocked on a third door before frowning and muttering something underneath her breath.

"Don't know. Gramps says that there's a lot wrong with me." Luffy said before frowning. "Why? Is there something up with you?"

"Yeah." Lee said bluntly, leading Luffy down one of the side stairwells. She pulled her walkie talkie off of her belt loop. "I have a bad case of ADD. I've had it for years but I haven't had medication for it until recently. And even then, I found out that I was allergic to the medication the doctor originally gave me so I've been put on several different types, but none of them work that well." She said quickly, giving the device a quick once over before she began fiddling with the dial.

"My ADD has made it surprisingly hard to keep a job considering all of the things I end up doing. Luckily, Mr. Shanks lets me work here. My job is to go around the building and make sure that everyone's ok with the hotel conditions, and that the departments and stores are playing nice with each other. But superiors usually dump the 'problematic employees' on me." She glanced down at Luffy out of the corner of her eyes. "Which lead me to ask, what's wrong with you. But that was rude on my part. I'm sorry."

"Huh, don't mention it!" Luffy grinned. He reached out and slapped Lee on the back. "You're weird." Luffy stated as if it were a compliment. Lee gave him a wry grin.

"You're pretty strange yourself." she stopped when they reached the next floor. "Ok, I need you to do something for me." she unclipped a second walkie talkie from her belt. "There is a man out there, blonde hair, green eyes, kinda rude looking, named Arnold Jefferson. Ask the other employees if you can't find him." She handed him the walkie talkie. "Find him, and then radio me. I need to talk to him."

"Hmm? Why?" Luffy asked, taking the device and messing around with it.

"You know what I said about my superiors and 'problem employees'? Well, it's my job to find and deal with them. Arnold, Melissa, and Jose weren't in their rooms so now I have to find them and make them apologize to a vacationer that they offended when they were off the clock yesterday." Lee sighed. "It's tiring but it's all in a day's work, right Luffy?" she asked, giving him a small smile.

"Don't know." Luffy said with a smile. "I've never had a job before." Lee's smile was bigger this time around.

"Well, I guess you're one of the lucky ones then. This is a fun first job, though." She pushed open the doors and winked at him. "Try not to get lost now." she said before slipping into the crowd that had congregated a few feet away from the stairwell. Luffy stopped right outside the door and looked around with wide eyes.

"Wow." he said, a grin on his face and a bit of drool appearing at the corner of his mouth. The smell of food was almost overpowering. If Luffy had to compare it to something, he would have compared it to the outdoor markets Dadan had taken him to when he was younger. Restaurants, some were sit down and some were fast food joints, lined the walls and crowds of people milled about, occasionally stopping inside to get a bite of food.

People everywhere were shouting, some shouted out food orders, while others were just trying to catch up with each other. Luffy, suddenly remembering that he had a job to do, sadly turned away from the food and started searching the crowd for this Arnold guy. It occurred to him that Lee's description of Arnold had been pretty vague but he figured that he'd find him sooner or later.

* * *

4:20 pm (15th floor Fast Food Cajun Joint)

Luffy finally stumbled into one of the restaurants, his feet sore and his shoulders hunched over. He was a few floors lower than when he started but Lee had told him that he didn't have to look anymore. It turns out that she had found the three employees about 30 minutes after they had started.

Unfortunately, Luffy had messed with the dials on his walkie talkie so that she couldn't get in touch with him. It had taken another employee, a long nosed man named Usopp, to hunt him down and tell him. Now he was just waiting until she got done sorting things out with the three from earlier. Luckily, Usopp had decided to tag along with him, and together, they'd explored a few of the other floors. Or rather, Luffy had run around, pointing at everything, and Usopp had tried to keep up.

"You finally done?" Usopp asked good naturedly. Luffy didn't answer him. Instead, he hunched over and held his stomach.

"Hungry-" Luffy moaned, shooting Usopp his best pathetic 'I'm about to die' look. While it never worked on Ace, it seemed to work on Usopp.

"Really?" Usopp asked before casting a look around. "Did you bring your charge card?" he asked, holding out his hand. Luffy frowned at him.

"What are you talking about?" Luffy asked, wondering what that had to do with food. "What does that have to do with food?" Usopp raised an eyebrow at him.

"You _really _are new aren't you?" When Luffy continued to hold his stomach and give his best 'pity me' look, Usopp caved. "Fine, if you still don't have your card, then you'll have to pay me back for this. I'll cover you this time, and this time only." Usopp began heading for a stairwell. "Follow me. I know a great restaurant."

"Yeah! Food!" Luffy cheered, following close behind.

* * *

3:43 pm (22nd floor guest rooms)

"Another one of your jobs will be," Smoker continued, as he and Ace came to a stop at a door. "Is checking out employee complaints. Now follow me." Smoker said, giving a few quick raps on the door with the back of his fist.

"Who is it?" a woman asked from behind the door.

"Officer Smoker. I'm with the security Ma'am." Smoker said and a few moments later, the door opened up.

"Oh you're here." the woman said cheerfully. "That's good because I had a complaint to make." she invited him into the room. Smoker signaled to Ace.

"Follow me Portgas."

"Yeah, ye-" Ace stopped when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned and glanced down the hallway and saw a woman standing at the end of the hallway. She gave him a small smile before motioning for him to follow her. She turned and walked down a second hallway without checking to see if Ace was following. Ace glanced after Smoker. "You know what Smokey?" Ace grinned playfully. "I'll be right back- gotta piss." Ace said before he started jogging down the hall.

"Portgas!" Smoker said warningly.

"Be right back!" Ace said cheerfully as he turned the corner. He stopped when he saw the woman standing by the wall, her arms folded over her large chest. "Hello there." Ace said, putting on his charming smile. "What-"

"So," the woman said quietly, her smooth voice stopping Ace in his tracks. "Which one are you? Ace or Luffy?" her brown eyes watched him impassively. And Ace had the strangest feeling that he'd seen her somewhere before.

"Oh, I'm Ace." Ace scratched his cheek sheepishly. "How do you-er"

"Shanks told me. I'm a… personal friend." She said personal as if it meant something else.

"Uh, oh. Ok then." Ace said, straightening up. He put his hands into his pockets. "What-what exactly do you need ma'am?" Ace asked her, a bit put off by the searching look like her eyes.

"Need?" she asked, making him feel a bit ridiculous for asking. "Oh, I don't need anything. I just wanted to meet you. You know," she pushed off from the wall and walked towards Ace with long graceful strides. "Shanks had been talking a lot about you two recently, more than he usually does." she paused for a moment before smiling again. "In fact, Shanks says so many good things about you two that I just had to meet you for myself." she offered out her hand. "So if you need anything while you're here Mr. Ace, then just ask." Ace slid his hand into her grip.

"I-I will." Ace said breathlessly. He then cursed himself. He had thought that he was over his habit of getting flustered around beautiful women. He hadn't done it since he was a preteen and had spent a week around Makino. "Ask for help that it. Thank you Ms-" he waited and she smiled again.

"Robin. Nico Robin." The name sounded exotic when she said it and Ace decided that he liked it. Very much. It also set off an alarm in the back of his head. Yeah. He had _definitely_ seen her somewhere before.

"Thank you Ms. Robin. I'll see you around then?" Ace asked before he heard Smoker call out his name. "Shoot, have to get back to the boss." he said sheepishly. Robin humored him with a smile before looking down at their clasped hands.

"My hand Mr. Ace?" she asked, and Ace quickly let go of it. Robin watched him stammer out an apology before laughing. It was low and soft chuckle. "I look forward to meeting you again Mr. Ace." she smiled before walking down the hallway. Ace watched her go for a second before he remembered his irate boss and went back around the corner to look for Smoker.

Smoker gave him a dry look but thankfully didn't say anything. "Where to next boss?" Ace asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"Next we'll sweep the Casinos." Smoker said, already on his way to the elevator. "After that, there are some forms I'll need you to fill out."

"Paperwork?" Ace groaned. Smoker cut his off with another look. "Fine, fine. I'll shut up.

* * *

4:00 pm (in Smoker's office)

"I got it!" Ace shouted, making Smoker jump. Smoker leveled a glare at him but Ace didn't see it. "She's that author! The one with the really popular book out right now!"

"For God's sake Portgas. Just shut up." Smoker growled pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Geez Smokey," Ace playfully reached across the desk and jabbed Smoker with his pen. "If you don't stop frowning like that, then your face will freeze up. And that's be a shame with your pretty mug."

"What part of shut up do you not understand?"

* * *

4:30 pm (The G8 Kitchen)

"Louis! Who the hell told you that you could serve the fish like that!"

"Look, I don't need your input Bastard!" Luffy listened as the chefs shouted at each other from across the kitchen. In front of him, Usopp was ducking and weaving his way through the chaos. Luffy followed him closely until they ended up at a door marked 'manager'. Usopp knocked twice before someone answered.

"Come in." a woman barked. Usopp entered the office and held the door long enough to Luffy to slip in too. "Oh Usopp," the woman looked up from her paperwork. "There you are. We hadn't seen you in a few days. I was starting to think that you'd found a new restaurant to eat at." she teased before returning to her paperwork. "So, who's your friend."

"Luffy, this is Jessica." Usopp told Luffy. "Jessica, this guy's Luffy." Usopp patted Luffy on the shoulder. "He's working here for the summer. He's part of Customer service or something." Jessica glanced up at them and gave Luffy a once over. "We were just stopping by the get a bite but I was also wondering if you could explain the food system to my friend here. He… he didn't really get it when I tried."

Jessica placed her pen down and looked up from her paperwork. She gave Usopp a 'you've got to be kidding me' look, but Usopp just shrugged. Jessica sighed and put on the look she normally used to deal with hard headed workers. "Your name is Luffy, right?" Jessica asked. Luffy nodded.

"Yeah, Monkey D-"

"Listen here Luffy. I don't have much time you see." she said with a tight-lipped smile. "Since you're friends with our restaurants' favorite little busboy, I'll explain this to you as easily as I can. You see that card he's holding?" she nodded at Usopp's red card and Usopp nodded. "We call that a charge card because employees use them to buy things at the resort, and we just charge the price of the item to the card. You see?"

This time, Luffy's nod was a bit slower. "Well, after every two weeks, we take that charge card and take everything that you've charged to it, and subtract it from your paycheck. Employees get certain discounts of course, but rent's the only free thing here. Understand?" This time, Luffy didn't nod. Instead he just cocked his head to the side.

"So it's a mystery card then?" he asked. Jessica, a little bit taken aback by the fact that he didn't understand something as simple as this, just took a deep breath through her nose.

"Yes…. That is exactly what it is."

"See Usopp! You were making it too hard!" Luffy said loudly. He grinned and began yanking on Usopp's arm. "Come on, let's get some food."

"Yeah yeah." Usopp sighed. "Hey, buddy, just wait outside. We can get something to bite in a moment." Luffy pouted when he realized that he wouldn't eat right that moment, but he listened to Usopp anyway. When he stepped outside, Jessica let the tight smile fall from her face.

"I sincerely hope that you didn't interrupt me for _that_." She jabbed her pen at the door. Usopp laughed before digging into his pocket.

"No, no." he pulled out a small box. "I came to give you these." Usopp handed it to her and she quickly opening up the box. Inside was a pair of pac man earrings.

"Color me impressed Usopp." Jessica smiled before tucking the box into one of her desk drawers. "My sister in law is going to love them. Thank you so much." she sighed.

"Don't worry about it." Usopp laughed. "I'll just ask for a free meal as payment at some point."

"Deal." Jessica smiled. Usopp turned to leave but she stopped him before he reached the door. "Wait Usopp!" she said, suddenly remembering something. "Sanji called a few days ago." Even though his back was turned, Jessica could still see him flinch.

"Oh, what about?" Usopp turned around and tried to maintain eye contact with Jessica. It was hard though, considering that the woman had a huge smirk on her face.

"Oh, the usual." she said in an off handed manner. "He called me pretty a few times, complained about his boss Ivankov, asked me about the restaurant-"

"Well if that's all then-"

"_Then _he asked about you." Jessica curled her hands underneath her chin and grinned when Usopp flinched. "He said that he missed your happy attitude." Usopp scowled and his cheeks turned a little redder. "I told him that you were doing fine."

"Well-"

"He also called last night too." Jessica smiled when she saw that she had his attention again. "He said he'd be back in a few days. Something about a friends engagement." Usopp turned a little redder when he heard this and scuffed his boot against the floor a bit. Honestly, he wanted to see Sanji again.

It had been almost two years since he'd seen Sanji and his apprenticeship to Ivankov, a world renown transsexual chef, had often left him busy to the point that he was rarely able to call. And since Usopp had stopped taking his calls about 2 years ago, Sanji had occasionally taken to checking up on him via Jessica. Although it wasn't because he didn't like Sanji per say, their relationship had just gotten… awkward.

Keeping himself far away from that vein of thought, Usopp finally settled on a shrug. "That's nice." he said, trying to play his hand at suave. Jessica's grin told him that he hadn't gotten any better at it over the last two years. So he opted for a tactical retreat instead. "Uh, well, I'll just go and find Luffy." he crept towards the door. "And make sure that he doesn't… do anything. Anyway, see you!" Usopp shouted as he ducked out, intent on tracking down Luffy.

* * *

5:10 pm (G8 restaurant)

Usopp stood next to Jessica, watching with a slack jaw as the kid in front of him continued to shovel food into his mouth at an alarming rate. Jessica was standing with a hand over her mouth. "You know," she said quietly, "Maybe it's a good thing that Sanji's coming back now." No one else in their kitchen would be able to cook fast enough for the brat. Usopp nodded before shooting Jessica a nervous glance.

"That reminds me. Eh-heh, can I use that free meal now?"

* * *

And that's the end of it. As for what the actual employees do, I'll explain it over the next few Luffy chapters. And wow, it looks like I started shipping RobinXAce a little bit at the end. Interesting.

I also realised that I made a bit of a mistake here in using Jessica because (for those who remember the G8 arc) she's actually married to Jonathan (who's a principle in the first chapter)... so, I guess they're going through a seperation or something. Poor Jessica, her job must be so taxing.

About my updating schedule, I'm going to start updating twice a week. On Monday and on Thursday. I figured that as long as I don't fall into my bad habit of updating right after I finish a chapter (and therefore getting lazy and losing interest) then there won't be any problems. And updating twice a week will probably be better for pacing anyway.

And just a question for anyone out there (including anons): Do you guys enjoy the pacing of the story so far? I know that last time it was really fast, so is this better?

And another Question (also including anons): I said in a review reply that I would probably put a little bit of RoNam and SmoAce in the story . But does anyone else care about the side pairings, because what I'm kind of doing right now is just writing out character interaction and some of it (like the dialog between Ace and Robin) just happens to turn mildly flirtatious. I'm not particularly for or against any side pairings so if anyone wants to just suggest any of them (depending on whether the characters are in the story or not) I'm basically willing to go along with anything. If you don't care though, then just say so. (don't get me wrong through, there's definitely going to be some SanUso in here)

One day I'll stop babbling on and on in these ANs. Until then~

Next chapter: 'Get the hell off me!' A fateful Collision!

See you guys on Monday~


	4. Two idiots with a shared Passion

Warnings: I wrote a little bit about Psychopaths vs Sociopaths in this chapter because it directly concerns two of the charcaters in the story. Now, what I write are just generalizations and some of the information may or may not be incorrect (because medical studies on psychopaths and sociopaths are really different depending on which sites you use for reference. On one site, I looked up traits of a psychopaths vs a sociopath and then I looked up the same thing on a second site and the traits were reversed) So I just compiled a few of the most common facts and went on from there.

With that being said, another warning for implied abuse, mental illnesses, and implied homicide.

Last warning: while this is a Zoro/Luffy centric story, it will sometimes focus on what other characters in the story are going through. Mainly because I think it's interesting to see other characters (not just the main ones) grow and develop over the course of the story. So just a little warning there.

A special thanks to: **Mad Hatter Usagi, Zolufangirl17, .Blaze, **and **Robin1771** for the great reviews and feedback! It is very much appreciated.

* * *

8:58 am (first floor interior of the Skypian Ferry)

"Thanks for coming along with me, Nami." Vivi said again, leaning against her friend's shoulder. "When father's business trip came up, I thought I wouldn't be able to go at all." she sighed. It was unfortunate really, her and her father had been planning this vacation as a sort of father/daughter bonding opportunity. But after a last minute meeting with a sister company a few days ago, Cobra had informed Vivi that he wouldn't have been able to go on the trip because he would be traveling abroad and working out negations between several companies. He also told her that he wouldn't allow her to go by herself, so Vivi had asked Nami to go with her instead literally two days ago. Nami, however, didn't mind being called in at the last minute.

"What are you talking about Vivi!" she laughed, poking Vivi in the forehead. "It's unfortunate that your dad couldn't come but I'm really glad you called me in instead." Nami sighed. "I mean, this place has it all. Spas, good restaurants, shopping." Nami began giggling and Vivi joined her.

"And boys." Vivi said and Nami raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," she gave Vivi a look that would have put the Cheshire cat to shame. "I thought you and Kohza were-"

"We're not!" Vivi said quickly, her cheeks turning red. "I-I mean I'd like to be but-but he doesn't seem that interested so," Vivi straightened her back and cleared her throat. "I can have some fun too, can't I?" she asked playfully. The blush on her face just made Nami began laughing again. After a few seconds, Vivi started giggling again.

"What about you Nami?" Vivi finally asked, feeling a little bit of satisfaction when she saw Nami's surprised face. "Are you going to pick anyone up? I'm sure they're be plenty of cute guys and girls there." Vivi said, nudging Nami in the shoulder.

Nami tipped her head back and laughed. "Probably." she smiled at Vivi. "It's summer after all. In fact-" Nami stopped when one of the employees caught her eye. She watched him until he walked out onto the front deck. She had only seen the back of his head, but he looked _really _familiar. "Hey, Vivi," Nami nudged her. "I think I just saw Ace."

* * *

9:27 am (back deck, second floor of the Skypian Ferry)

Zoro sat against the back railing of the ferry with his arms folded behind his head and his eye closed. He was trying in vain to catch up on the sleep that he'd been denied this morning when his three cousins had literally dragged him out of his bed. And even though this spot wasn't ideal (it was too damn loud for his tastes), the sea breeze was calming and there was nobody in the immediate vicinity. Most of the people near him were too busy either playing games on deck or gazing at sea animals. So Zoro just sat there, hovering somewhere between drowsiness and actual sleep. And he remained there until he heard footsteps start up and stop right in front of him.

He cracked an eye open to see Katherine standing there, her head tilted to the side and her hair fanning out in the breeze. She was watching him with narrowed eyes. After a brief staring contest, Zoro closed his eye and sighed. Katherine, taking this as some sort of concession, sat down next to him and leaned over until she was resting against his side. Zoro grimaced but didn't move away.

"Aww Zoro," Katherine cooed after a few moments of silence. "What are you doing up here all by yourself?" Zoro glared at the top of her blonde head, but he answered her question anyway.

"Sleeping." Katherine laughed. It was a hollow sound, devoid of any warmth. The sound set Zoro's nerves on edge.

"But aren't you lonely?" she asked, playing the part of the concerned fiancée. Zoro had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Katherine was bored. That was the only reason she was out here instead of being inside. Well, Zoro didn't feel like going through this back and forth act any longer than he had to.

"What do you want?" he asked, his tone indicating that he was in no mood for her games. Katherine raised her head and just stared at him.

"You're so blunt Zoro." She said, her tone was slightly mocking. "I was bored." her hand, which had been resting in her lap until then, moved. Zoro had to stop himself from flinching when he felt her fake nails scrape against his side. "So. Very. Bored." she punctuated each word with a deeper and deeper scrape. Katherine used her other hand to fiddle with the zipper on his pants. "Play with me." she said in an overly dramatic voice. The hand that wasn't trying to unbutton his pants slipped lower and traced a ring around Zoro's navel.

Zoro honestly had no idea how far Katherine would have taken it had he not grabbed both of her wrists in a vice-grip. "Stop." he growled, fixing her with a glare with his good eye. She batted her eyelashes at him. The fact that he didn't want to do anything sexual in public only seemed to encourage her.

"Oh, don't say that Zoro." she said again, her voice sounding breathless. "We're engaged, we should be able to do these sort of things." There it was again. That same damn mocking tone. Zoro scowled at her and she gave him a cocky grin. Just to see how he'd react. "So let's do it. Here!" she giggled before leaning up and biting his ear. Zoro shoved her away.

"Keep your hands to yourself." he said between clenched teeth. Katherine looked like she was about to retaliate, but stopped as a chipper male voice came through the ferry's intercom.

"Hello, my name is Ace and I'd like to thank you again for using the Skypian Ferry services." This Ace person said before he began a quick introduction on The Red Line Resort and the surrounding area. "Now, we should be reaching the docks in roughly 25 minutes or so, so please begin gathering up your luggage. A resort rental bus will be waiting for us when we arrive, so please listen to these safety procedures-" Katherine suddenly stood up and stretched her arms over her head. People around them were already going back inside to collect their belongings.

"Hmm, here already?" she sighed before shooting Zoro a flirtatious wink. "I guess we'll finish this later Zoro~" she said before moving back down the stairs that would lead to the lower deck.

* * *

Now, Zoro was no psychiatrist. He didn't he understand things like mental diseases; how they worked, what caused them. They might as well have been a foreign language to him. But the one thing he _could_ do was recognize the symptoms of them. After all, he'd witnessed enough of them firsthand through his own mother. She was a Sociopath. She was never medically diagnosed though, because she avoided public doctors and psychiatrists like the plague; instead preferring to hire people who wouldn't look too far into her illness.

But Zoro had never realized what she was until he was 12 or so, when he witnessed his mother absolutely lose it and almost beat his father to death with a frying pan. It had been horrifying to say the least, not that the abusive bastard hadn't had some of it coming. It had continued to the point where the man had almost died. Jackie had claimed self defense when the police had come around later. After all, Jackie played the abused and beaten wife role very well. When his father, Roronoa Brutus, had actually died just two years later, the police had ruled it as death by accidental sleep medication overdose, Zoro's 14 year old mind immediately thought of the worst.

And that's she had confided in him about her illness. Although she didn't refer to it as an illness. The way she described it made it seem more like… an advantage. Not having a conscience, that is. Or real emotions.

So when he'd met Katherine at age 19, it hadn't been as jarring for him as it was for his cousins. Tashigi and Kuina, who had better sense than most of their family, had immediately distrusted her. Everyone else had been charmed with her public persona. But after a few meetings, Zoro had seen the wild mood swings, the sadist attitude, and her erratic behavior. And it hadn't been to hard to realize that she was like his mother. Except that wasn't quite true either. Katherine was a Psychopath, not a Sociopath. But it had taken him a few weeks of reading and research to get a generalized idea of the difference between the two.

Psychopaths by nature, were charmers and charismatic. Many were able to manipulate others with ease and could often appear to be perfectly normal because they had a better grasp at faking emotions. Sociopaths, on the other hand, were more alienated and had an easier time forming bonds with select people. Neither of them, however had empathy for anyone but themselves.

That being said, Zoro couldn't really explain why he had agreed to this ridiculous marriage in the first place. It certainly hadn't been because of the pressure from Katherine's parents (seeing as the two of them were pushovers and completely oblivious to their daughter's personality defect). And even his mother's opinion hadn't played much into the decision. So all that was left was that, despite the fact that she constantly put Zoro on edge, he actually did grudgingly care about her safety. Psychopaths made up a small percentage of the civilian population, but a rather large percentage of the prison inmate system. And although he wasn't melodramatic enough to say it out loud, Zoro felt that in some way he could at least try protecting her from herself.

* * *

9:46 am (Back deck, second floor of Skypian Ferry)

After tuning out most of the announcements, Zoro finally decided to move. He stood up and popped his back before stretching his arms up over his head. Distantly, he heard shouting from the deck above him, but he ignored it. He was walking towards the staircase that lead to the lower levels when he heard a shout.

"WAIT! Gimme my hat you stupid dog!" Zoro stopped in front of the upper level staircase and watched as a dog, a big black and white rug looking thing, leap over the railing that surrounded the upper level, and landed with a thud next to him. Zoro noticed that the dog had a dirty looking straw hat clutched between its teeth before the mutt took off. "Hey stop-" The shout was cut short and Zoro turned around in time to see a red and black blur trip at the top of the stairs and begin tumbling down. However, it didn't occur to his sleep deprived body that he should move until the blur was literally on top of him.

Zoro's head hit the deck of the ferry with a loud crack and stars exploded behind his eyelids. A splitting pain in his head followed almost immediately. A second pain tore through his lower body as some bony part of the person that had fallen on him (an elbow most likely) nailed him right in his family jewels. "Ooph-!" Zoro felt all of the air rush out of his lungs as other body aches made themselves known. A foot connected with his face and Zoro felt something wet on the lower half of his face.

Meanwhile, the person was still squirming on top of him, completely undeterred by the fall and totally unaware of the fact that Zoro was trapped underneath him. "Damn dog!" the person, a teenage male judging by the voice, shouted. He untangled himself from Zoro before rushing after the animal, completely trampling Zoro in the process. Zoro faintly heard a scream from up above him. Quick footsteps on metal quickly alerted him to another person rushing down the stairs.

"Ohmygod-areyouok?" the words came out of the person's mouth in a rush. They only added to Zoro's headache. His eyes were clenched shut from the force of his headache.

"Peachy. Fucking. Keen." Zoro growled, his head feeling like it was being split by a jackhammer. The person, a woman by the sound of it, began apologizing again. She sounded like she was literally on the edge of tears. Zoro was taken aback when she wrapped her slender arms around his arm and dragged him to the side of the boat and away from the stairs.

"I'm so sorry." she apologized again. "I'll be back, I just have to catch my dog." she apologized and Zoro heard her footsteps fade. "Megalo wait!" the girl wailed.

"Holy Hell." Zoro growled when she was gone. He slowly opened his eye, and flinched when the bright sunlight caused his head to throb more. From far away, he heard Sanji's annoying voice.

"Moss head! Oi Moss Head, we're packing up. We're about to lea- Shit!" Zoro heard Sanji draw closer to him. "What the hell happened?" Sanji asked, and Zoro felt Sanji's hand brush across his shoulder.

"The hell if I know idiot!" Zoro bit out. He brought his hand up to his face and felt this nose. It wasn't broken and the nosebleed didn't seem too bad either. "All I saw was some sort of mutt, then someone fell down the stairs, and next thing I know, it feels like I'm being hit with a freight train." Zoro scowled. Part of him wanted to check on his bruised family jewels, but refused to do so in front of anyone- much less Sanji. "Jesus Christ." Zoro bent over and clutched his head with his hands. Sanji was quiet for a few moments.

"Get up Moss Head." Sanji finally ordered, grabbing Zoro and yanking him up. Zoro swayed slightly at the sudden shift in his balance, but quickly regained his footing. Sanji began dragging Zoro.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zoro snarled at him.

"Going to find a manager obviously. I'm going to report the dumb shit who did this."

Zoro scowled. "Didn't know you cared so much Cheese Head." Sanji made a violent gagging noise.

"Like hell!" Sanji finally shouted. "I don't give a shit about you! What if there had been a lady there instead of your dumb ass? This moron would have seriously hurt her!" The duo bickered all of the way to the front of the ship. "Now stay here. You're my evidence." Sanji said before storming off, muttering something about the quality of workers. Zoro scowled at his back but stayed where he was, ignoring the stares directed at his bloody face. Most of the people on the ferry were already lining up to get off of the boat. Sanji returned shortly with a black haired guy who looked about their age. The man looked Zoro up and down and grimaced.

"One of our employees did that?" he asked Sanji, gesturing to Zoro's face. Now, Zoro had no idea what he actually looked like at the moment, and Sanji certainly didn't help things.

"No, Grass Head's always been that ugly." Sanji said calmly. Zoro growled at him. The young man, his nametag read 'Ace', looked between the both of them before pulling a rag out of his belt loop.

"Here. Clean up with this." he told Zoro. "I used it for a bit of cleaning earlier so I'm sure that nobody will care if it gets a little bloody." Zoro silently accepted the rag. "Well, I'm sorry that you had to go through this sir," Ace said to Zoro. "And I assure you that we'll find out who ran into your boyfriend." he told Sanji.

At the same time, the two of them began snarling insults at each other and Ace, while vehemently denying that there was anything but hate between them. Ace watched their display with a raised eyebrow, but didn't comment. The amused expression on his face told them exactly what he thought about the validity of their claims.

"Ace! Is that you Ace?" a voice rang out behind them. Ace turned around to see two girls, a blue haired girl and a red head, walking towards them. Both of them were decked out in beach wear. "I knew it was you Ace." the blue haired girl said excitedly.

"Oh, Vivi, Nami." Ace smiled, looking a bit surprised to see them. Sanji, on the other hand, seemed overjoyed to see the girls.

"Beautiful ladies~!" he sang before twirling around and grasping the red head's hand in one of his and the blue haired girl's hand in the other. Nami and Vivi shot each other confused looks. "Ah, the angels above must surely be smiling down on me today." Sanji continued.

"Ah-" Ace watched the display with wide eyes before turning back to Zoro. "Wha-?"

"Don't mind him." Zoro said coldly. "He's an idiot."

"But I though you two were…" Ace trailed off, confusion written all over his freckled face.

"What part of 'we hate each other' do you not understand!" Both Zoro and Sanji snarled at Ace.

Ace was about to respond when another girl came up to them. This one he didn't recognize. The girl immediately began talking to Zoro.

"You're the guy from earlier right?" she asked, her hands nervously clenching her shirt. "I-I'm so-so-so sorry about that." she said, tears gatherng in her eyes. "Are you alright?" she asked and Zoro suddenly recognized her voice as the one belonging to the girl he had spoken to after being trampled. And right now, she sounded like she was only a few seconds away from a breakdown. Before he could respond, Ace cut in.

"Uh, hello Ma'am." Ace asked, stepping closer to her. "Are you saying that you did this?" he pointed to Zoro's face. The girl flushed.

"Well, no but- well, it started when I was having a conversation with one of the employees, Mr. Luffy, and my dog Megalo-" she pointed to the black and white dog sitting obediently by the railing. "Stole his hat and ran-" That explained the obnoxious voice then, Zoro reasoned. "And well, Luffy ended up falling down from the third floor onto… him." She pointed at Zoro and Ace, realizing what this meant, brought his hand up and covered his eyes.

"Of course." he muttered, before turning to Zoro. "I'm sorry. It seems like you were injured on account of my idiot little brother. You might as well exit with the rest of the passengers ina few minutes but I'll bring him down to apologize to you when I find him." Ace said before letting out a weary sigh. Nami and Vivi recognized it as Ace's 'I have two tests tomorrow but I have to go out and take care of my drunk friends instead' sigh. The girls remembered his family (Vivi still felt bad about inviting Garp over) and felt a little more sympathetic towards Ace.

"Hmm," Sanji glanced up at Ace. "It sounds like things like this happens to you a lot." he noted.

Ace chuckled. "You could say so. It's not easy having a high maintenance ADHD little brother running around. I end up getting bit in the ass for his actions more often than not." Ace said before excusing himself and going off to find his little brother.

* * *

10:02 am (Red Line Resort Docks)

"I'm very sorry. It won't happen again Mister." Zoro turned around to see a young man with messy black hair, and a tattered straw hat hanging around his neck, standing behind him. His nametag read 'Luffy'. "Please forgive me." Luffy said, his badly rehearsed lines grating on Zoro's nerves. The fact that he wasn't even looking at Zoro, also pissed him off.

"Che- Whatever." Zoro sighed. With any luck, he wouldn't have to see this guy for the rest of his trip. Zoro was about to follow his family onto the Resort bus when a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist. He looked back to see Luffy, blinking up at him. Zoro scowled down at him. "What?" Luffy blinked a few more times. All of a sudden, he looked like the exact opposite of when he'd been apologizing just a few seconds earlier.

"Hey," Luffy looked strangely serious. "You wouldn't happen to be a swordsman would you?" The question seemed so out of nowhere that it took Zoro completely off his guard.

"Yeah, why?" Zoro asked. Luffy smiled.

"I knew it!" the grin spread across his face. "You were part of the fighting competition held a few months ago right? At Little Garden right?" Zoro blinked, honestly surprised the kid had recognized him. Maybe he'd seen it on tv or something.

"Yeah, I was part of the Youths Swordsman Division. I came-"

"In first." Luffy finished. And somehow, Zoro found that, despite his best intentions, Luffy's grin was infectious. Before he knew it, he had a small smile of his own on his face. "I was in the Youth hand-to-hand division." Luffy said proudly. Zoro held up a hand to stop him before tilting his head to the side a squinting a little.

"What was your name again?" Zoro asked, feeling something like déjà vu.

"Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy." Luffy said proudly.

"Ahh, you were second in your age division, right?" Zoro asked, recognizing his face. Luffy nodded proudly.

"Yeah, I lost to Ace, but I definitely won't lose next time!" Luffy stated. Zoro thought back to Luffy's brother from earlier. He hadn't remembered at the time, but now he did have a vague memory of seeing him at the Competition. Portgas D. Ace was his name, if Zoro remembered correctly. Zoro looked back down at the teen in front of him. A division runner up, eh? Well, the saying must have been true then. You couldn't judge a book by it's cover.

"Hey Zoro! Get on!" A voice called. Zoro looked up to see Kuina leaning halfway out of one of the windows. He then glanced around to see that he was one of the only people left not on the bus. He turned to board, but Luffy grabbed his sleeve again.

"Hey," Luffy said quickly. "If you want to, later, I could show you where the training rooms are, and then maybe we could have a spar or two." Luffy grinned and this time, it was brimming with confidence. "I won't lose you know."

Zoro, feeling anticipation at the thought of a challenge, grinned. "Sure. I don't plan to either."

* * *

And there it is~

I don't have much to say this time around, but I hope you ejoyed the chapter.

Next Chapter: 'Sanji and Usopp's reunion. The chef returns to his station while the other two idiots duke it out in the other Room.'

...or something. See you on Thursday~


	5. Hey I know you!

So basically this chapter takes place on the same day as the last one, but it switches halfway through to the next day. Most of the later chapters will probably have this format as well.

The only warning really, is for language so... (but there's a lot more focus on side characters in this chapter). Also a ton of One Piece references in Robin's section.

A big thanks to **Sonic1615,** **Zolufangirl17, **and** Mad Hatter Usagi** for your wonderful reviews. Also thank you for anyone who has alerted/faved/or whatever. Enjoy the latest chapter~

edit: I went back over this chapter and fixed a few spelling and grammar mistakes (which I'm probably going to do with the previous chapters too after a certain point) that ** .Blaze** pointed out for me. Thank you so much for pointing out my mistakes so that I can fix them. Crossing my fingers and hoping I got all of them.

* * *

9:30 pm (somewhere on the 15th floor)

"So, where do you feel like eating tonight?" Usopp asked Luffy. They were finally off the clock and Usopp really just wanted to eat _something_ before he turned in for the night. He was surprised when Luffy didn't immediately respond. Instead, Luffy was staring off into space with a smile on his face. Now, Usopp had only known the teen for a few days, but even he knew that it was a bad sign when Luffy didn't automatically respond to food. Or rather, whatever was distracting him must have been pretty darn important. "Hey, Luffy." Usopp said again, resting a hand on Luffy's shoulder. Luffy jolted at his touch.

"Oh, what do you want Usopp?" Luffy asked. Usopp sighed.

"Food. Where do you want to eat?" Usopp repeated. He had barely finished his sentence when Luffy grabbed his arm and was pulling him through the crowd.

"Food? Why didn't you say anything?" Luffy asked, making Usopp sound like he was the idiot. "I want to go to that one place pm the 18th floor!" Usopp rolled his eyes at Luffy's enthusiasm.

"My bad. I'll make sure to ask louder next time. By the way, Luffy, you had a pretty weird look on your face just a minute ago. What's up with that?" Usopp couldn't see Luffy's face but he could imagine the huge grin on it. Usopp briefly wondered if there was a time when there _wasn't_ a huge grin on Luffy's face.

"I made a friend today." Luffy stated. Usopp raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Do _they_ know that they're your friend?" Usopp asked dryly. After all, Luffy had a strange way of making friends. Once he latched onto a person it was almost impossible to shake him off. Something he'd learned from personal experience and from the testimony of Luffy's older brother Ace ("you think he's bad now?" Ace had laughed. "Jesus Christ, he was annoying when I first met him."). Ironically, the person is in question didn't seem to have much of a choice on the matter. So Luffy harassing some unfortunate employee into being his friend seemed perfectly reasonable to Usopp.

"Yep!" Luffy said proudly and Usopp sent a silent prayer for that person's well being.

"Tell me about them then." Usopp said as he and Luffy boarded the elevator. Luffy took a moment to think.

"Well," Luffy thought before making a face. "He's really funny looking." Luffy pointed to his head. "With green hair," and then to his ears, "and earrings," then Luffy made another face, "and he frowns a lot. But he's really strong."

"That doesn't sound like a good guy to me." Usopp stated, wondering what kind of friends Luffy was making. "In fact, he sounds more like a delinquent to me." Luffy frowned at Usopp.

"Hey, what's wrong with being a delinquent?" Luffy asked, sounding personally affronted. The elevator doors opened and the duo walked out onto the floor. Usopp shook his head.

"What _isn't_ wrong with being a delinquent?" Usopp answered, remembering his own experiences with delinquents in his hometown. "Listen, if that's your thing then ok, but I've been on the wrong side of a few too many wannabe thugs. Enough for this lifetime at least." And he had the scars to prove it. I mean, how tough did someone have to be to pick on the scrawny kid who weighted 90lbs, soaking wet?

Luffy snorted. "That's not how we did it at my old school." he said as if he'd read Usopp's mind. He was referring to the school he attended before his grandpa sent him to the Marine school, of course. "Whenever someone wanted a fight, they fought with other strong people. Only idiots and cowards fought with people who couldn't fight back." Luffy said adamantly, and Usopp decided to shift the conversation to something less... touchy.

"Ok then, tell me again about your friend. Which department does he work in?"

"None of them." Luffy said, his happy mood automatically restored. "He's a guest or something."

"Or something?" Usopp asked, his eyebrows raising again. It was a pretty simple yes or no, after all. "Was he wearing a uni-" Usopp stopped when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. "Wait a sec." Usopp stopped and glanced at the number. He didn't recognize it but decided to take the call anyway. "Hey Luffy, go ahead." he waved his hand at Luffy. "I'll catch up in a minute." he said. He already had a pretty good idea of which resteraunt Luffy was heading for anyway. And even if he couldn't find him, all he'd have to do is ask around for the guy eating three times his weight in food.

Luffy, who mind immediately comprehended the fact that if he stayed with Usopp it would be even longer before he got any food, walked away with a cheery wave of his own.

Usopp flipped open his phone. "Hello?"

"Usopp." Usopp almost jumped when he heard the voice. It was impossible for him not to recognise it.

"Sanji!" he said, his heart hammering in his chest for several reasons. Many he didn't want to admit. "How did you get this-"

"Guess." Sanji told him and two years be damned, Usopp could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"It was Jessica wasn't it?" Usopp groaned putting a hand over his eyes. He judged by Sanji's laugh that he'd hit the mark. "That it. I'm not eating at the G8 for a month at least."

"Well, that's a little unfair. After all,_ I_ asked her for the number. After you stopped picking up and all." Sanji teased and Usopp responded with a barb of his own.

"My mistake for thinking that _anyone _could resist _your_ charms." Usopp added in an eyeroll despite the fact that he knew that Sanji wouldn't see it. And it was then that Usopp realized that he'd missed this. The playful banter between him and Sanji. Great, he told himself, now all he had to do to keep it up was never talk to Sanji face to face. That way, no ensuing awkwardness and an old friendship rekindled. As long as he did that-

Usopp's thoughts were cut off when a hand settled on his shoulder. He craned his head around slowly and saw Sanji there, phone still pressed to his ear, and a grin on his face. "Well, look at you. You certainly got bigger. So..." Sanji leaned into Usopp's personal space. "How are ya' Usopp?"

At this point, Usopp had to remind himself a few things. Mainly that he was straight and that Sanji was most definitely straight. Then that was that he already had a crush on a girl; sure it was mainly an internet/webcom relationship thing, but _it still counted_ (Kaya was very beautiful as well). And finally was that he didn't really have a crush on Sanji. It-it was a man crush maybe- he certainly looked up to Sanji, and Sanji had really helped him out after his dad died, and-

But even as he thought these things ran through his head, all Usopp could focus on was Sanji. Sanji had certainly grown in the last year. He'd always been taller than Usopp, but he was even taller now (which was saying something considering Usopp's own growth spurt). He'd also grown a small goatee and switched the part in his hair. Instead his bangs were covering the opposite side. "Woah, so his eyebrows curl to the same side then?" Usopp wondered, then froze as he realized that he said it out loud. However, instead of being angry like Usopp expected, Sanji just seemed amused.

"Still the same Usopp." Sanji said before reiterating. "Your brain still runs straight to your mouth." He tapped Usopp on the head and Usopp swatted his hand away.

"Does not." Usopp said weakly, his face turning pink. "Did you track me down just to make fun of me?" Usopp asked and Sanji shook his head.

"I was actually going to take you to dinner. My treat." Sanji smiled again and Usopp felt his heart clench and his stomache turn. But he ignored the feeling because it was hard to say no when Sanji smiled. Yep, still very straight, Usopp thought sarcastically.

"Sure." he said, making a mental note to text Luffy later or something. He'd make up some excuse or another for canceling.

* * *

7:30 am (Luffy and Ace's room)

Luffy got up early the next morning, but only because Ace made him. "Get up you lazy ass." Ace had said before tipping his bed over just enough for Luffy to roll out of it and hit the floor. Luffy, how wide away, whined from his position on the ground.

"Ace. Stop." Ace smiled at his little brother before grabbing his work uniform and strolling to the bathroom.

"Don't want to hear it Luffy. Just be up by the time I get out." Ace said before closing the bathroom door behind him. Luffy pushed himself off the floor and stuck his tongue out at the bathroom door.

"Stupid Ace." he muttered. And he continued to mutter things about Ace was he went about getting ready. When Luffy had done everything except shower, he waited for Ace to get done with his shower. For about all of five minutes. "Ace, hurry up!" Luffy shouted, barging into the bathroom. Luckily for him, Ace always left the doors unlocked.

But Ace was used to this kind of thing. So, instead of getting mad at Luffy for barging in on him, Ace simply kept on shampooing his hair. "Stop Luffy." Ace said as he scrubbed at his hair with his fingers. "I'll be done when I get done." And Ace, foolishly thinking that the issue was over, went to wash out the shampoo underneath the showerhead. Luffy, not one for being patient and certainly not one for being told no, looked around with a frown on his face. When his eyes landed on the toilet, his expression became much more devious.

Luffy crept over to the toilet and slapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his giggles. He waited until Ace was no longer paying attention to him, then he reached over and flushed the toilet.

Ace, who usually took hot showers in the morning, was caught off guard by the even hotter water. "Christ!" Ace shouted, hopping back in order to avoid the scalding water. He pressed himself against the back of the shower and scowled when he heard his brother dying of laughter out there. "Luffy you bastard!" he shouted, storming out of the shower. Ace grabbed a towel on his way out and went to cool off his aching head. Luffy continued to laugh, even as he got into the shower.

The look on Ace's face!

* * *

Ace continued to mutter to himself as he left the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his waist. He walked over to the mini coffee maker in the room and started up a cup, knowing that if he didn't get something in him soon, he might just end up strangling Luffy. Ace was so caught up that he didn't even notice the visitor in the room until the man cleared his throat. Ace spun around when he realized that there was someone else in the room. But he releaxed when he saw that it was only Smoker. "Hey Smokey," he said conversationally. "Didn't notice you there." Smoker ignored his greeting.

"Well, color me surprised Portags." he growled. "Here I was expecting to have to drag your ass out of bed this morning." Ace gave him a cheeky grin.

"Shucks Smokey, you should have told me. Then I would have slept in for sure. I would have _loved_ waking up to your happy face." Smoker ignored the jab.

"Well, whenever you and that brother of yours are done getting ready, meet me outside. I have some jobs for you two."

"Yes sir." Ace said, checking the coffee pot. "Hey, want some coffee Smokey? It should be done soon." And for a moment it looked like Smoker would accept his offer (after all the faculty coffee was unadulterated shit and his own coffee machine had broken down last week). Instead he decided that he didn't want anything prepared by Portgas.

"No." he said gruffly before heading to the door.

"But it's delicious!" Ace called out, watching Smoker leave. "But it's not the only delicious thing." Ace muttered as he watched Smoker leave. His gaze landed on Smoker's firm butt and he made an appreciative noise. Yes sir-ry, Smoker was a hard ass in _every_ meaning of the word. Just my type, Ace decided, spur of the moment. He imagined how fun it would be to tease Smokey. However, his thoughts were interrupted by Luffy leaving the bathroom with a fluffy towled around his waist and his hair sticking up in every direction.

Luffy immediately began unwrapping the towel from around his waist. "You know Luffy," Ace said lightly. "After they take a shower, most people get dressed in the actual bathroom." Luffy cocked his head to the side and gave Ace one of his 'Ace are you an idiot' looks.

"Well that's dumb." he said immediately before pulling a pair of briefs on. "It's too hot and stuffy in there." Luffy argued. Ace just shrugged his shoulders and went back to watching the coffee.

"Well, whatever. Just be ready soon. Smokey has some jobs for us apparently."

* * *

9:04 am (3rd floor Spider Cafe)

Robin sat in one of the resort cafes, a cup of coffee in her hand and her laptop on the table in front of her. She was currently scrolling through her notes for her next novel, a historical adventure sequel to her first best seller. As she sat there, wearing a beanie and a pair of sunglasses in a half hearted attempt to keep people from recognizing to her, she listened in to conversations around her.

People always spoke about interesting things when they believed that no one was listening to them. For example, the man to her left, just a table in front of her, was sitting with his mistress (their PDA and the lack of a ring on her finger helped prove this theory) while chatting on the phone with his wife. Robin assumed from the conversation that he'd lied to her about some sort of business conference to sneak here. It was very interesting; the lengths he went to hide his infidelity.

Then to his right, a woman was gossiping with her friend about one of the latest celebrity break ups. Their comments were shallow and vapid, but insightful for Robin. After all, her editor, had suggested that she observe people more, and learn to get inside their heads to figure out what type of characters they liked and wanted. And she had certainly learned a lot through just sitting and watching people.

But even as she did this, Robin was filled with a sort of dislike for her trade. As a writer with a history degree, if given the choice, she would spend all of her time writing and documenting history and ancient cultures and what we could learn from them. She had one book like that, her first book. But she had learned quickly that books like that didn't sell well (or rather they did, just not to the standard of the more popular genres). Especially not compared to books like _'The Dusk Saga'_ or _'25 Shades of Lavender'_ which were just purple prose filled brain candy. But, in order to continue writing, she had caved slightly to her editor's demands and decided to write a book that would cater to the masses. And out of her efforts had come her first bestseller _'Ohara'_.

_'Ohara'_ was for all intensive purposes, her autobiography. Judging by book sells and online articles, the most popular types of books at the moment were mindless self-insert books, made just so that people could slip into another character's shoes and _be_ them. And her editor had let her have free reign over the book, as long as she followed that pattern that is.

So that's what she had done. She wrote a book about herself, but she'd done it so that it wouldn't seem like it. The setting was the fictional island of Ohara, and history paradise located in a fantasy world where people had strange powers and mythical creatures were common place. In the book, the main character, a boy named Jay, had a past similar to her own; filled with abusive relatives, neglectful and/or absent parents, and loneliness.

But like every escapist's dream, she had changed things them make them better for Jay. Instead of loathing his parents, Jay had adored them despite their absence. The moment his father is briefly put into the story, Jay is overjoyed because his father _wants_ him and _loves_ him and moves heaven and earth just to get back to him. And unlike her, Jay actually has people he can got to. A friendly old professor named Clover and a giantess named Saul. They represented all of the things that Robin had never experienced herself; like positive encouragement.

It was a pitiful way to write, but the book sold. And Robin found baring her soul psuedo-anonymously like that it had been therapudic for her as well. And with the book's success, she had been able to launch another one of her research books, titled _'Can't Be Gained_ Back',which had been well received in the history field. And that had been her deal with the editor. Keep writing best sellers and she was free to write as many research books as she wanted. But even her name, Nico Robin was a pseudonym. Just another attempt to cast off her past.

Robin looked up and watched people mill about the café, taking mental notes on things like appearance and how they carried themselves to be stored away at a later date. She noticed, however, that one person in particular was staring at her; a red head over in the corner. She was sitting with her blue haired friend and drinking one of those tredny iced drinks. But after a few stray glances at Robin, she mustered up her courage and walked over.

"Uh hey," she said nervously, tucking a strand of long red hair behind her ear. "I was just wondering, you wouldn't happen to be that authoress, would you? Miss Nico Robin?" She waited for a response, but Robin simply stared at her from behind her sunglasses; neither denying nor confirming this. The girl rubbed her arm nervously, then stopped when she realized what she was doing. "B-because if you were then I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your book _'A Nation Doomed to Repeat'_."

Robin was taken aback. She honestly expected the girl to name _'Ohara'_. Instead she'd named her first book. A book detailing how nations today could learn from previous kingdoms. Robin smiled a little and removed her glasses.

"My, my, where did you read that book?" she asked, her brown eyes shining.

"It was a summer project for my high school Gov. and Economics class." the red head said. "I'm in college now but I still have the book on my shelf and I like reading it over and over again. It's really powerful." The girl said, slightly breathless.

After a moment, Robin gestured to the seat across from her. "Why don't you sit down Miss...?"

"Nami." Nami said, holding out her hand. Robin shook it.

"Robin. Nice to meet you."

* * *

I know I said that there would be more Zoro in this chapter, so I apologize. Luffy and Zoro's next meeting will have to wait until Monday, or something like that, then.

Last thing, for anyone who celebrates it, Happy Belated 4th of July. I spent most of the day yesterday on Tumblr having fun with 'America' posts. But for anyone who doesn't celebrate it, I hope that you had a great day yesterday.

edit: also an apology for anyone expecting the chapter update yesterday. I posted it yesterday but them email didn't come until this morning, so I don't know what was up with that.

Until then~


	6. You're So Cool!

Another Zoro POV chapter. Not much to say about this except there's more Zoro and Luffy fluff in this chapter. And basically, from this point on, there will be more and more zolu-ness in each chapter (as well as more side character interactions). This pairing just blooms so quickly. Jeez.

This chapter takes places on the same day as the last chapter. Some warnings for language and possible grammar/spelling mistakes.

As always, special thanks to **Rogue.P****hoenix.****Blaze **(jeez, for some reason, my computer really hates your username. It keeps deleting half of it) and** Mad Hatter Usagi** for their lovely reviews

* * *

8:02 am (Tashigi and Kuina's room)

"Ahh," Tashigi sighs as she slips down into her bath just low enough for the soapy water to reach her shoulders. Her long hair is tied up in a high bun to insure that it wouldn't get wet and her glasses are balanced on the edge of the sink. Sitting next to the tub were several of the small bottles of complimentary bath soaps and gels. Tashigi realized that she'd probably used more than she needed to (because the tub was completely filled with bubbles), but she didn't care right now. Mostly because this was the first real vacation that she'd taken in the last few months (The competition at Little Garden obviously hadn't counted) and she was determined to enjoy herself, even if she didn't like her company.

Tashigi looked up when she heard someone knocking at the bathroom door. "What is it Kuina?' she sighed. Kuina took this as an 'ok' to come in.

"Hey sis," Kuina smiled as she sat down on top of the toilet lid. "You look like you're having fun." she teased, laughing at the ridiculous amount of bubbles in the tub. Tashigi huffed.

"I'm trying." she said. "Believe me." Tashigi poked a few fingers up from the bubbly foam. "But did you need something?" she asked, "Maybe something for your leg? Your medication should be in your bag, in the left pocket." Tashigi said, glancing down at her sister's leg.

It wasn't fair. Really. When they were younger, Kuina had been the best at their father's dojo. She'd been able to beat the other kids and all of the adults with ease. Only Zoro had ever really stood a chance against Kuina. And even she had always been three steps behind her older sister in terms of skill and technique. So she'd always watched her sister and her cousin's spars with a bit on envy. The only one she hadn't seen… was their last one.

All she'd know was one minute, she'd been lying in bed, sleeping, and the next minute, her father had dragged her out of bed and her sister was being loaded into an ambulance. No one spoke on the ride to the hospital; Zoro and her just sat in the back of her father's car, Zoro was pale and his knuckles were clenched while Tashigi was just confused and afraid. It had only been hours later that she'd gotten a rough recap of the night from Zoro. The two of them had fought with real katanas and Kuina had fallen down the stairs when she had gone back to return hers to their father's shelf.

The doctors had never said anything out loud, but even 9 year old Tashigi had been able to deduce that Kuina was lucky to still be alive. There was something wrong with her spine, they'd told her family. Something about 'problems in her right leg' and 'needed physical therapy'. Tashigi hadn't paid attention at the time because she had already known the worst part.

Her sister's chance at being a swordsman was over. Without top notch reaction times and full use of her limbs, Kuina just wouldn't be able to get any better.

And that's probably when it had started. Her irrational hatred of Zoro. Mainly because after telling her about what had happened, he'd started avoiding her all together. And in her mind, that had been a declaration of his guilt. She had begun blaming him for her sister's accident because it was easier to do that then just believe that bad things sometimes happened to people that didn't deserve it. The fact that Kuina had given Zoro her prized sword had only served to drive home her hatred.

And so, Tashigi had instead trained to become the strongest in her own way. And that meant-

"-shigi. Ta-Shi-Gi" The last shout was accompanied by Kuina reaching forward and grabbing Tashigi's nose.

"Hey, stop!" Tashigi slapped her hand away before flicking her with a some water. "What was that for?"

"You were spacing out." Kuina stated, getting up from her seat and walking over to the mirror. She picked up a comb from the cabinet and began combing through her hair. "And stop staring at my leg like that." she added as an afterthought. "I'm not an invalid." she snapped. Tashigi blushed.

"Sorry," she muttered, sinking back into the water. "What were you asking about?" Kuina shrugged.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out. Maybe catch a movie or something." Tashigi saw Kuina's grin reflected in the mirror. "You know, do something away from the rest of our family." Both girls smiled at the thought.

"Yeah, sure." Tashigi said, after all, the steam from the bath was starting to get to her head. "Just get out for a second and then we'll catch a movie." This place was big enough so there was probably a theatre or two somewhere. Kuina nodded, continued combing her hair, and left, shutting the door behind her. Tashigi quickly stood up and walked over to the towel rack. She selected a fluffy white one and wrapped it around her chest and waist as she thought about Kuina's suggestion. Spending a day with just Kuina? It had been a while since she'd done that.

* * *

9:35 am (4th floor Miss Valentine's Clothing Store)

"Oh, what do you think about this one?" Perona held up yet another lacy top hat. She carefully placed it on top of her pink curls and tilted the hat slightly to the side. And isle over from her, Katherine was looking at a few neon colored skirts.

"It looks the same." she said bluntly, not even bothering to turn around. Perona 'humph-ed' and went back to checking out the little 'gothic and Lolita' accessories. Although she usually didn't like her, Perona had to admit that she found Katherine to be cute; but not in a physical attraction way. Mainly like how she found zombie animals and bat and ghost décor to be cute (Perona would have been one of the first to acknowledge that she had a very 'macabre/Adams' family-esque' sense of cute). So head cases like Katherine appealed to her. It was almost like being around a copy of herself.

"Hey Perona," Katherine called out over her shoulder. Perona put down one of the skull and cross bone chokers and walked over to her. "Entertain me." Katherine ordered in a bored voice. She pointed at a girl standing in front of a mirror a few displays down. "Tell me about her."

Perona, once she located the girl, stared her down for a solid minute before smiling. "That one's easy." she pointed at the girl. "She recently got dumped. Judging by the green on her finger, he gave her some sort of ring, a really cheap one, meaning that she's not too wealthy and probably works here if she couldn't tell the difference. Her make-up's a mess. It's not the first time she's worn it but it looks like her hand was shaking when she put it on. She doesn't seem to know much about using it because her foundation is too dark, so she probably started wearing it recently. Hence the idea of a boyfriend. Who is most likely _that_ guy over here, judging by the way she keeps glancing at him in the mirror when she thinks that he's not looking her way and by the fact that she's obviously not going to buy anything. And I know that because she hasn't actually moved far from that mirror since we got here. He dumped her, she wants him back." Perona paused. "Aim for the fact that she couldn't keep her first boyfriend. Her self esteem will be crushed." Perona finished smartly. Katherine looked at her before shrugging.

"Ok then, I trust you Pero'." she said in a cutesy voice and Perona felt a shiver of dislike. Yes, Katherine was somehow on her list of cute things, but she didn't like it when she spoke. And she would be about 10 times cuter if she just stopped talking altogether. But even as Katherine sidled up to the other girl, with her 'shy pageant girl' face on, Perona already knew what would happen. When she got closer, Katherine would strike up an innocent conversation, which thenwould then lead to the subject of the girl's boyfriend, which would finally end up with the other girl in tears. And Perona admired her tact. Personally, she never bothered for niceties and went straight for the kill. She prided herself on being able to reduce people to tears in five minutes or less. She called it her negative ability.

And while she certainly wasn't a psychopath, she was a sadist. She wasn't exactly a sexual sadist but she did get a rush from breaking people.

And speaking of that- a new target caught her eye. The guy was walking past the store with Zoro's blonde idiot friend. He had an ungodly long nose and a darker complexion than average. 'lost weight recently' she thought, judging by the stretch marks on his inner arms. 'Nervous' by the way his back was hunched. And by his body language… Oh. Well, wasn't that interesting? Perona smiled and her bangs cast a shadow over her eyes. And by the other other's idiot's body language…

Well, Sanji's friend had a crush did he? If she played her cards right, then she could get him and the blonde idiot at the same time. A two for one deal? Perona giggled her little 'Horo horo' giggle. That sounded fantastic.

Perona kept looking in that direction, even after they'd passed, so she was caught by surprise when someone pushed past her. The girl from earlier, break up girl, rushed past her, completely in tears. Katherine sauntered back to Perona's side.

"Right on the mark." she smiled, a little bit of her manic side showing. "You really are good." And Perona laughed at her compliment.

* * *

8:47 am (somewhere on the 11th floor)

Zoro bit back a snarl as he ran into yet another dead end. Who the hell had designed this place? MC Escher? On a nearby wall, there was a layout of the resort floors but Zoro ignored them since they were no help at all. Right now, he didn't even know what floor he was on, never mind where on the floor he actually was. So Zoro turned around, took a few rights and lefts, then went down a few floors on the elevator to see if he could find a gym or get outside. He was carrying all three of his swords on him, although they were all secured in a carrying case. A very heavy carrying case. But after a few more turn arounds and a few more tipes on the elevator, he ended up on the ground floor. He glanced around briefly before heading over to the front doors.

"Hey! Green guy! Wait!" Zoro's shoulders squared and he turned around to yell at the asshole who had called him that. Instead he came face to face with Ace. Zoro jerked back because Ace was quite literally in his face. 'how fast is he?' Zoro thought before he focused on what Ace was saying.

"-er wouldn't stop talking about you." Ace paused, shifting the boxes he had in his arms. "He got kind of annoying actually. Oh yeah, Luffy and Ace were brothers.

"Luffy seems like a kinda annoying person." Zoro noted and Ace laughed.

"Believe it or not, he's sorta mellowed out over the years. I mean, he's still a pretty big idiot but he's not so bad anymore."

"Hey Ace! Where are you?"

"Speak of the devil." Ace muttered as he heard Luffy call out for him. "Over here Luffy!" Ace called out over his shoulder. "Sorry, we were actually suppose to be moving these boxes to put in the room behind reception. You know, coffee and all that stuff. Luffy should actually have the last boxes." As soon as he finished, Luffy appeared by Ace's elbow.

"Ace! Zoro!" Luffy shouted, the boxes in his arms threatening to topple over. "What are you doing here Zoro?"

"…Training." Zoro said after some consideration. He had not gotten lost dammit. "I was going to do practice with my swords actually." he gestured down to his sword case.

"Oh yeah, you use three swords, right?" Ace asked. "Luffy told me that you won the sword portion of the Competition. You must be good then." Ace gave Zoro the same smile that Luffy had given Zoro yesterday. "How about we-"

"No!" Luffy shouted. "I want to fight Zoro first!"

"Why would he fight a second place loser like you Luffy?"

"Because I asked first Ace! I called it."

Zoro watched as the brothers literally began bickering over him.

"…Don't you two have a job to finish?" Zoro cut in after a while. Ace and Luffy looked at him before looking back at each other before glancing back down at the boxes in their arm.

"Oh yeah." they said at the same time.

"Come on Luffy. Let's take them to the reception area then find Smokey again." he said before walking off in the direction of the reception desk. Luffy waited until his brother was out of ear shot.

"Wait right here Zoro. I'll be right back and then I'll show you to the training courts." Luffy told him before following Ace to the reception area. He came back a few minutes later, a huge grin on his face. "Hurry up." he told Zoro, grabbing his arm. "I left Ace back there with Smokey." he said before dragging Zoro out of the Resort. Zoro turned his head to look back over his shoulder, but didn't see Ace there.

"Wait- aren't you on the clock now?" Zoro asked as Luffy continued to pull him along. Usually he would have pulled his arm out of a grip like this, but the boy was deceptively strong for his size.

"Yep." Luffy said cheerfully. "But Shanks won't fire me." he said confidently.

"Oh, and why not?" He would certainly fire anybody who goofed off like this at his job.

"Because Shanks is only letting us work here because our Gramps told him that it was either here or a military camp for the summer. Shanks is a big softie so he let us work here. In fact, Shanks isn't even paying me, but he's paying Ace 'cause Ace needs to pay for college." Luffy explained in one breath. "So Shanks won't care if I'm not there. He only has me and Ace doing weird odd jobs anyway." Luffy steered Zoro in the direction of the training courts. "Besides, it's summer. I don't wanna be working all day." Luffy stuck his tongue out after he said this. Zoro snorted.

"Lazy ass." and Luffy laughed that loud, obnoxious laugh of his.

"But Zoro, can I watch you train?" he asked suddenly, his eyes lighting up. Zoro shrugged. He was used to training with others watching him, so it was nothing new.

"If you want to. But I'm only going through the motions today. And after that I'll do some meditation." Luffy nodded and made a whistling noise through his nose.

"That's fine. Old Man Rayleigh told me that I need to medicate more. He said that 'it'd calm my happy ass down some'." Luffy quoted before laughing. Zoro also smiled a little. The very idea of Luffy staying calm or sitting still for even a small amount of time seemed bizarre. he frowned when he noticed Luffy's slip.

"You meant 'meditate' right?" he asked. Luffy turned around and staring at him, apparently confused as to why he asked. "Just now, you said 'medicate', not 'meditate', which one did you mean?" Luffy stopped and Zoro almost crashed into his back.

"Meditate? Medicate?" Luffy folded his arms over his chest and thought about it for a few seconds. Then he shrugged. "Don't know." he laughed. "Rayleigh probably meant both though." he laughed as if it were a great joke. Zoro thought about saying something but just settled for shaking his head instead.

"Hey," Zoro finally decided to ask. "Where are you dragging me anyway?"

"To the practice courts." Luffy explained. "See," he pointed into the distance. "There are some of them over there." Luffy started pulling Zoro towards them. He stopped when he came to the first one and unlocked the gate leading into it. "See?"

Zoro walked in past Luffy and glanced around. It looked like a tennis court and he could see the places and poles where they would either place a tennis or a volleyball net. And because Zoro was taking his time to examine his surrounding, he didn't notice Luffy fiddling with the lock on his case until the lock clicked and the case popped open. "Shit!" Zoro's swords slipped out and he made a desperate grab for them. Instead, Luffy caught them. "You bast-" Zoro stopped mid snarl when he saw how intently Luffy was studying his swords.

He wasn't any type of expert, that much was sure. Luffy was just balancing them the three of them in his hands. If it had been anyone like Tashigi and Mihawk, they would have automatically unsheathed the swords, studied the way that they were forged. They would have recognized his white sheath sword as Meito: Wado Ichimonji and his other two swords as Sandai Kitetsu and Meito: Shusui. Then most people would ask how he had gotten his hands on two famous swords and a cursed swords. The ensuing discussion would then last anywhere from ten minutes to a few hours depending on the person.

However, Luffy did none of this. Instead he just hummed before handing Zoro his swords back. "You _are_ good." he stated. "Your swords must be happy." Zoro, a little taken back by the whole situation, asked before he could stop himself,

"How do you know?" Luffy answered with a shrug.

"They just seem happy. And you handle them well." Luffy folded his arms over his chest. "Oh man, I really wanna see you fight now." He cocked his head to the side and smiled.

Now Zoro was really surprised. It wasn't that he was unused to people complimenting his sword skills but… those comments just didn't feel the way Luffy's compliments did. It was… different. He attributed his flustered feelings so that fact that Luffy was so shameless with his praise. "Um, thanks." he said, holding the empty sword case out to Luffy. "Do you mind?" Luffy nodded before taking the case and walked over to the fence that surrounded the area. He plopped down with the case in his lap and watched Zoro eagerly.

Zoro glanced at him one more before sighing. That guy was really something. But he put that out of his mind. Instead he closed his eyes and tool a few deep, steadying breaths. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. He decided to start with his one sword exercise and move up from there, so he placed Shusui and Sandai on the ground and moved a safe distance away from them.

And as he went through various one sword techniques, Zoro could feel his body and his muscles loosening up. All of the stress from the previous few days had begun to slowly drain out of his body. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. After completely loosening up, Zoro decided switch swords. He would do his one sword exercise with all three of his weapons. Because they weren't just long pieces of steel to him. They were extensions of his own self, and he couldn't afford to neglect training with any one of them.

He didn't know how long he spent on his one sword workout, but he soon switched to two sword exercises. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. And then finally to three swords. By the time it was over, he was drenched in sweat and his lungs were burning; in a good way of course. When he finally reheated his swords, he looked around to see that he had attracted a small crowd of onlookers, all dressed in sports garb. Luffy, he was also surprised to see, was still there (he honestly thought that Luffy would have wandered away at some point). Although this time he was by the door, stopping anyone from getting inside.

"Oh, you're done Zoro?" he asked before picking up the sword case and jogging over to Zoro's side. "Don't mind those guys over there." he said, thumbing at the people over his shoulder. He handed Zoro the case and Zoro began carefully tucking his swords inside. "I just told them to wait until you were done. But they all shut up after a while when they saw you. You're cool Zoro!" Luffy shouted and Zoro felt him face heat up. Yeah, he was definitely not used to this. Usually his hair and face alone were enough to discourage people from getting close to them. And if that didn't work, then it was always his attitude that drove him away. Nobody had ever called him cool. Intimidating. Scary. Bloodthirsty. All of those he was used to.

Zoro looked down at Luffy. "What's cool about me?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"I asked what was so cool about me." Zoro scratched at his ear. "Because that's not a word people usually associate with me." A list of alternatives immediately came to mind.

Luffy shrugged. "Your hair, your earrings, your swords," he said, counting off on his fingers. "you're really strong, and you're really good. Oh, and you're my friend too." Luffy clarified. Zoro resisted the urge to snort. Friend? After one day?

Despite this, Zoro found that he didn't mind Luffy calling him his friend. "If you say so." he said instead. He paused for a second before saying, "Hey, Luffy, let's spar right now."

For a second, something akin to anger flashed across Luffy's face and before he realized what was happening, Luffy had grabbed his arm, flipped him over his shoulder, and was holding his arm at and angle that assured Zoro that if he moved the wrong way, his arm would be broken. And for a few seconds afterward, all Zoro could hear was his own pulse thundering in his ears.

"What are you doing?" Zoro growled, staring up at the angry look on Luffy's face with surprise.

"Don't underestimate me like that!" Luffy answered angrily and Zoro's mouth closed with a snap. "I want to fight you Zoro. Not as a spar. And not after you've already tired yourself out like this. I want to fight you and I want to do it right." Luffy said before letting go of Zoro's arm. "I'm not an opponent you can take lightly, Zoro. And I'm not someone you can take on if you're not at your full strength." Luffy warned him. Zoro, with his arm freed, rotated his arm a little before sitting up. He looked at Luffy- really look at him, and saw how passionate he was about this. Yeah. Ok. He wouldn't waste their first fight on some flimsy post-exercise spar.

"Yeah," Zoro said, looking Luffy right on the eye. "My bad. We can fight some other time." And just like that, Luffy's face cleared up. It was like a cloud that had passed over the sun, had dissipated, leaving a wide grin in it's wake.

"Yeah!" Luffy nodded. He grabbed Zoro's hand and helped him to his feet.

"You almost dislocated my arm." Zoro stated, taken aback by Luffy's strength. He really shouldn't have been, but he was. "You're strong." he gave Luffy a compliment of his own. Luffy grinned cheekily, and thumbed his nose.

"Of course I am!" And he began laughing again. When the two made their way over to the gate, the people there made room for them, equally impressed Zoro's training as Luffy's feat of strength. "Now, let's get some food."

* * *

2:43 pm (in Zoro and Sanji's room)

Zoro leaned back into the chair in his and Sanji's room. He had Wado balanced on his knees, but the sword was still unsheathed. As he stared at it, he was reminded of what Luffy told him earlier that day. His swords were happy with him? A small smile touched his lips. Tashigi would throw a fit if she heard that. Her goal was basically to take his Meito swords from him; really, is was to take them from all of the 'bad' people in the world. It was a romantic, if not stupid dream, but Zoro knew that he was the last person who should have been talking about stupid dreams.

"You look happy Zoro." Zoro looked up to see his mother standing there, a cup of coffee in her hands. "Did something happen to you today?" she watched him with careful eyes. Zoro paused.

"Yeah, I was just training today. Other than that, nothing really happened." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't really the truth either. Jackie hummed at his explanation. Her eyes told her that she didn't quite believe him, but didn't want to follow up on the conversation. She put the cup down and walked over to Zoro.

"I see." she rested her hand on her shoulder. "That does sound interesting Zoro." she said before resting her chin on the top of his head. "Let's go out later Zoro." she sighed. "Find dear little Katherine and have a nice dinner together." Zoro didn't speak for a few seconds.

"Fine." he muttered. Jackie hummed again.

"I love you Zoro." she said quietly. And Zoro knew it was true. He was probably the only one she cared for at this point.

"Yeah. You too."

* * *

But seriously, I tried to take Zoro and Luffy's friendship slow but Luffy doesn't have a 'slow' switch. He's just straight up 'you're my best friend now'. So XD

But also, if you couldn't tell, this will be a really mellow story. It's won't be too dramatic until the end (so sorry for anyone expecting a really fast paced story). It's more of a slice of life/romance thing.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If the pace goes on like this (as in two chapters for every day storywise) then there should be another 30 to 40 chapters. Which is basically another 15 to 20 weeks of this fic. So, I'm hoping you all will stay with me for the rest of it.

Until Thursday~


	7. 6 Degrees of Seperation

Some warnings for language, but that's mainly it. There's not a lot of Zolu-ness in here mainly because I'm trying to mesh all of the friend circles in this fic (starts to regret all the background characters a little).

I would like to thank **.Blaze**, **Zolufangirl17**, and **Mad Hatter Usagi** for reviewing~

* * *

8:15 am (Lee's office)

Luffy laced his fingers behind his head and sighed. Loudly. He leaned back in the office chair so that it was balancing on two legs instead of four. Next to him, Lee continued to do paperwork with the kind of single minded determination normally found in beasts of burden. She didn't even flinch when Luffy lost his balance and the chair toppled backwards. Luffy hit the floor with an 'oomph'. Lee placed her pencil down for a second to glance over at him; no blood, no bruises, not worth her time. And just like that, the pencil was back in her hand and she was filling out more 'customer complaint' response forms.

Her job wasn't a particularly easy nor relaxing job, but it kept her busy. And busy was good for her, because her being bored lead to her doing things. Things that you were no longer allowed to do at her age. Things that got people in trouble. So she stuck to her paperwork. Her doctor had recommended that she stay on a schedule after all. Unless something very important was happening, she normally spent from 7 o'clock in the morning until 11 o'clock doing her paper work in her office. Then she would take a brief break before tracking down the employees that needed to be dealt with. After that, she would have some lunch before going back to her paperwork.

Her doctor had recommended that she keep to a schedule. And so that's what she did. However, Luffy was throwing off her schedule. She'd been able to put up with it before (the fact that he couldn't keep still, how loud he was, the list went on and on), but right now she couldn't. She was suppose to be doing paperwork. And she was behind.

"Luffy. Stop talking and sit still." she said, trying desperately to focus on her work. 'Did I snap that?' a part of her fretted. It was the part of her that constantly worried about her very 'ADD filled' presence annoying others. She heard him mutter some version of 'idiot' and her grip on her pencil tightened.

Luffy was the one in trouble so she didn't understand why Mr. Shanks was punishing _her_ like this. Especially when he knew about her schedule and knew the dent he'd put in it. And yet, she was being forced to baby sit him because he ditched work yesterday. If she wasn't a grown woman, she would have called it unfair. So instead, she thought out of the box.

"Luffy," she said again, and Luffy stopped whenever he was muttering about. "I need you to do a job for me." Mr. Shanks had told her to watch him, but it wouldn't hurt if she just sent him out on an errand or two. And if he skipped out, then it wouldn't be her problem. After all, Shanks hadn't hired her as a babysitter. Lee reached over and picked up a pile of forms. "I need you to deliver these to the businesses listed at the top." she pointed to the business logo at the top of the paper. "Ask the other employees for directions if you need to." she said quickly. She shoved the papers into his hands, wincing a little as several of them were folded and creased, before steering him to the door. "And don't skip this time. Shanks will be mad if you do it again." she warned before opening and closing the door after him. Once the lock clicked, a nice silence settled over the room. Lee breathed in deeply through her nose before smiling again. Finally!

She hummed a little song under her breath as she sat down to work again.

* * *

8:40 am (4th floor)

Luffy sang a song to himself as he worked. It was one that Shanks had taught him when he was younger. He had called it 'Binks' Sake' and told Luffy that it was a song that pirates used to sing. ("That's good then. I'll need to know it," a seven year old Luffy had told Shanks, a plastic eye patch over one eye and a plastic sword in hand. "Cause I'll be a pirate when I get older.") Luffy had forgotten a lot of the words, but he still remembered the bridge and a few stray lines so he just stuck with those. And so he sang in his off pitch and obnoxious voice as he went around delivering letters and memos. Most of the employees he handed things to just ignored him, while some of them would give him a strange look, and occasionally someone might ask him why he was signing or tell him to shut up.

But Luffy continued to sing anyway because he felt like it. He didn't stop until he heard someone call his name several times. He finally turned around to see the blue haired girl from Ace's school running towards him. Trailing behind her was the pink haired girl he'd met on the ferry a few days ago. Shira-something had been her name.

"Luffy!" The girl stopped when they were about a foot apart. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and a few strands of long hair were coming out of her pony tail. "I thought that I recognized you. You and Ace have the same singing voice you know." she teased. The girl behind her had her long wavy hair down. It was sticking up oddly in several places. "It's me, Vivi." The blue girl, or rather Vivi, clarified when she realized that Luffy hadn't recoginzed her.

"Oh, Vivi." Luffy said cheerfully. "What are you doing here?" he asked, a big smile on his face.

"Vacation." Vivi said slowly, as if she were still trying to catch her breath. "I brought Nami along too but she's actually hanging around with a friend she made. And then I found Shirahoshi here. Her father is a friend of my fath-."

"Where's your dog?" Luffy cut in, specifically remembering the black and white ball of fur that had been following Shirahoshi around that day on the ferry.

"Oh-" Shirahoshi seemed surprised at being addressed so suddenly. "M-Megalo is at pet care right now. Um, bath treatments and such." she said, her voice trailing off at the end. She glanced down for a few seconds before nervously plucking at her tank top. "I-I've been meaning to tell you…I-" she took a deep breath. "I hope I didn't get you in trouble the other day because of me!" she cried, her voice turning into a wail halfway through. A few people turned around to see what the commotion was. Luffy just covered his ears at the loud noise.

"Shhh, shhh. Please stop Shirahoshi." Vivi said quickly, trying to calm down the emotional girl. She wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder. Luffy, who was on the other side of the calming spectrum, just snapped.

"Stop crying Cry baby! I didn't get in trouble so just stop!" And Shirahoshi, unused to hearing anything other than gentle words directed at her, stopped mid cry. She looked at Luffy with wide blue eyes.

"N-nobody's e-ever yell-yelled at me like-like that." she whimpered. Luffy folded his arms over his chest, forgetting about the papers clutched in his hand.

"Well I'm about to do it again if you don't stop!" he snapped and Shirahoshi hiccupped.

"…ok Luffy." And Vivi watched this all happen with something akin to shock. Don't get her wrong. Shirahoshi was a sweet girl, but when she cried, it was usually pretty hard to get her to stop. The fact that Luffy had done it… and so brashly too, surprised her.

"Horohoro, the nerve of some people. Being so loud in public." Vivi's head snapped up as she spied another pink haired girl a few feet away from them. Her hair was about as long as Shirahoshi's but it was in ringlets. She also had blunt bangs and a ridiculous top hat (although it did match the rest of her outfit). She had several store bags hanging on her arm. "Hey," she snapped at Shirahoshi. "Annoying people shouldn't be so loud!" Shirahoshi, taken aback by her remark, flinched and her eyes welled up with tears again.

"Hey!" Vivi didn't know who said it louder, her or Luffy. But before she knew it, Luffy was up in the girl's face.

"Leave Cry Baby alone." he ordered the other pink haired girl. She gave him a chilling stare but Luffy stood his ground. "Be rude somewhere else Bug Eyes!" And this time the girl's expression changed radically. Her eyes, they were actually bug-ish, widened comically before narrowing and her red lined lips tightened into a straight line.

"Luffy," Vivi hissed, feeling like he was about to get into some serious trouble, as if insulting the guests didn't get him into enough trouble already. "Stop!" Next to her, Shirahoshi was watching the exchange with some degree of fascination and horror.

The other girl opened up her mouth to say something when her blonde friend stepped in.

"Leave it alone Perona." she ordered. And it occurred to Vivi that she'd always read about book characters with 'musical voices' but had never heard one herself until now. It was... strange so say the least. Her voice just didn't seem real, the way it fluctuated pitch ever so slightly when she spoke. It was a bit unsettling. The girl turned to Shirahoshi and Vivi saw that her eyes were an even brighter blue than Shirahoshi's. "I'm so sorry that my friend was rude to you." She smiled and Vivi felt her heart flutter. This person was charming, as in _really_ charming. Shirahoshi apparently felt the same way because she immediately turned away and muttered something under her breath.

But Luffy and the other girl, Perona, seemed unaffected by the blonde woman's charm. Instead Luffy just kept on glaring at Perona, but Perona stuck her nose in the air. "Fine Katherine. Let's go!" she ordered before stalking off. Katherine sent Vivi another one of those 'looks' and Vivi felt her face heat up.

"Oh, well," Vivi said a little breathlessly when they'd gone. "That was interesting." She quickly glanced around for a topic. "So! Where did you say you were going Luffy?"

* * *

Katherine chuckled. "Oh, don't you look mad. What's wrong? Couldn't read him?" She laughed again when Perona didn't answer.

Truthfully, Perona hadn't even heard her. That bastard, Luffy, as his nametag had identified him was a fucking blank slate. But there was something- Oh, there was _always _something. She just had to find it.

* * *

9:22 am (13th floor)

"Just stand over there and try not to look like an idiot." Ace mimicked in a high pitched voice that sounded absolutely nothing like Smoker's gravelly baritone. Ace stood with his back straight against one of the columns. He just barely resists the implusle to fold his arms over his chest and scowl at Smoker. Smoker, of course, is talking to one of the heads of the department about something or another (Ace really wasn't paying attention when the head explained the situation. Right now he was suppose to be 'on the lookout' but he was _way _too annoyed for that (true to his word, Smoker had given him a wake up call this morning. It just hadn't been _nearly_ as nice as Ace expected it to be). In fact, Ace was so busy brooding over Smoker that he didn't notice Robin coming up behind until she was almost within arm's length.

"Hello Ace." Ace jumped and spun around at Robin's voice.

"Ms. Robin!" he said quickly, a smile finding its way to his face. Already his mood was starting to pick up a little. "What are you doing here?"

"Book research." she said with a small smile. "My editor tells me to observe other people to get inspiration for my own characters." Robin looked at something over his shoulder. Ace turned his head slightly to see Smoker glaring at his back. It seemed that the only thing stopping him from marching over and tearing into Ace was the fact that the frazzled department head was still there. Ace, in a show of maturity, stuck his tongue out at Smoker (in addition to what may or may not have also been a middle finger) before turning his head around again.

But Robin seemed find the whole situation funny. "Oh? Who's that?" she asked and Ace snorted.

"Boss." Or rather his baby sitter. Shanks really didn't seem to know what to do with him and Luffy other than pass them off to other employees. He had half a mind to just march right into the man's office and demand a _real_ job from him.

"Just your boss?" Robin teased with an almost straight face. The corners of her mouth quirked up slgihtly.

"Or my handsome boss." Ace said with a very straight face. "My sexy ass boss." Ace sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "And poor little me. I'm just the little masochist employee." Ace was surprised when Robin suddenly leaned into his personal space.

"Do you want help with him?" she smiled that secretive smile of hers. Ace raised an eyebrow but his curiosity at the woman's actions was peaked.

"What do you have in mind?"

* * *

9:45 am (16th floor)

"The first floor is reception. Floors 2 to 8 are entertainment, you know, casinos, theatres, and the like. Floors 9 to 14 are retail. Floors 15 to 18 are resteraunts. And finally, floors 19 to 25 are employee/guest lodging." Usopp explained to Vivi and Shirahoshi as they sat outside of a 'healthy eating' joint.

Vivi nodded. "My father told me a lot about this place, but it's my first time actually being here." She said before dipping her fork back into her fruit salad. "This place is so big."

"Me too." Shirahoshi said, her own salad in hand. Usopp had been on his lunch break when he'd run into Luffy and his friends. Luffy, apparently, had been skimping on doing his work again so Usopp had to send him on his way. Which had left him alone with Luffy's two friends. Vivi and Shirahoshi (Usopp actually had to ask them their names a little while later because Luffy hadn't bothered with introductions) were really nice. And he had a bit of a soft spot towards really nice girls so he couldn't help but use the rest of his lunch break to show them around.

They were somewhere on the 17th floor when Usopp heard someone calling his name. "Oh, Sanji." Usopp waved at him, albeit slowly. Upon his return, Sanji had been really nice to him. Strangely nice in fact. Which is why Usopp felt even worse about his 'not straight or even remotely platonic even though he wants them to be' feelings for him. He didn't notice the questioning look that Vivi sent his way. "What are you doing here?" he stopped when he noticed Sanji's friend. His green haired friend. Green hair, earrings, scary face... Oh.

* * *

12:10 pm (Shanks' office)

Luffy groaned again. Loudly. The chair he was sitting in was too heavy for him to lean back in, so he just settled for tapping an annoying beat on its arm. He hadn't even been doing anything! And he was still in trouble! Mad at the injustice of it all, Luffy settled for the next best thing. Giving Shanks a headache.

Now, don't get him wrong. Shanks loved Luffy. he was his Godson and probably the closest to son that Shanks would even have. But right now, he wanted to throttle him. Because, as if the annoying groaning hadn't been enough, Luffy had also taken to making small, but still just as annoying, noises. "Luffy." he ground out from between cletched teeth. "If you don't stop right now, so help me, I am calling your grandfather!" The noises stopped immediately but Luffy threw Shanks the dirtiest look he could muster. the words 'you wouldn't dare' seemed to be hovering in the air between them. Shanks calmly placed his pencil back down on his deck. "Oh, but I would." he said coldly. "If I told your grandfather that you were skipping out on work, what do you think you would do?"

Luffy folded his arms over his chest and continued to give Shanks the darkest look he could muster up. Shanks took this as a concession. "Good. Keep quiet then." he said and silence reigned over the office for a few glorious minutes. But, unfortunately, loud voices broke the silence just ten minutes later.

"-got laid you'd be a little nicer Smokey!"

"I have a name you goddamn punk! Use it!" The door to Shanks' office burst open and Smoker walked in, dragging Ace by his upper arm. "I am done with this little bastard!" Smoker snarled and shoved Ace against Shanks' desk. Luffy, who knew that Ace absolutely _hated _that work, flinched when Ace's face turned a bright shade of red.

"Who the hell's a 'bastard' you prick?"

"Don't make me repeat myself Portgas!"

"You-"

"Both of you!" Shanks shouted, getting in between them. He shoved Smoker back before standing in front of Ace. "Stop. Right. Now." he glared at Smoker then glared at Ace. "Luffy!" he snapped. He felt a little bad when Luffy jumped at his harsh tone. "Take Ace. Go to your room. Don't go _anywhere_ else." he stressed. Luffy nodded before reaching around Shanks and tugging on his older brother's arm.

"Come on Ace." Luffy said quietly. Luffy tugged on Ace's arm and pulled him away from Smoker. The two of them continued to glare at each other like there was no tomorrow. But Ace finally relented and allowed Luffy to drag him out of the office. When they were gone, Shanks folded his arm over his chest and just stared down Smoker.

Smoker was actually looking a little stunned himself. He gestured vaguely to the door and took a few deep breaths. "I-I can't do this anymore Mr. Shanks." He sighed again before dragging a hand down his face. Shanks just kept staring at him impassively, but his eyebrows did scrunch up a little in confusion.

"They've only been here for a week Smoker. What are you talking about?" he waited until Smoker calmed down enough to speak rationally.

"I can't work with Portgas anymore. I've had enough of annoying bastards like him. I saw enough of them when I worked with the Juvenile Detention system. Those bastards that can't even keep their dicks in their pants long enough to do their job and can't be serious about _anything._" Smoker huffed again and Shanks sighed. He considered telling Smoker that Ace actually was one of those types, or rather he _used _to be (Ace had had quite the record in his youth), but that he'd been 'reformed', but he didn't want to waste his breath. For some reason, Ace had decided to pick on Smoker and it was Shank's duty as both of their bosses to do something about it. And the last thing Shanks needed or wanted was for Smoker to lose his wits or to, god forbid, quit over it.

"Ok, ok." Shanks used his 'calming boss' voice. "Don't worry about Ace right now. I'll speak to him later. Just take a break for a while. Consider yourself off the clock." Smoker's tight shoulders relaxed slightly at the idea of taking a much need break, and he sighed.

"Fine." he straightened up again. "I'll be in the second employee's lounge." he said gruffly before shaking his aching head again. After Smoker left, Shanks walked around his desk and sank down into his seat. He groaned as his head hit the desk. Why couldn't things ever be nice and simple? He reflected upon the fact that if he didn't own this place, he'd probably be living a much more relaxing life.

There was another knock on the door and Shanks almost felt like crying. "Come in." he called, marvelling at how calm he sounded. The door opened, but instead of seeing an irate employee, he saw someone he hadn't expected to see. "Oh, Robin?" he asked, his tone was full of surprise.

Robin smiled. "Sounds like something quite exciting just happened." She guessed.

"Yeah," he said again, "employee problems." Shanks said before tensing up. He looked up to see Robin staring at him calmly. In fact, maybe a bit too calmly. "Robin..." he said quietly. "What did you do?"

* * *

But **Mad Hatter Usagi**, for some reason, your review saying that you hated Katherine struck me as funny (not for a bad reason of course!) because I originally wanted to make her more likeable this time around (because if you look at the previous version of this story, she's still pretty damn annoying but for different reasons) but I ended up making her a Psychopath (mainly because that mental illness really intrigues me and it's a bit of my Criminal Minds fangirl peeking through), so either way, people wanted to slap her XD

But, thank you all for reading this, even if you don't review, alert, or whatever. Getting 'finish first fanfic' off of my teenage bucket list will be a big deal for me either way.

So, until next time! (also, feel free to correct me on things like grammar and things that don't make sense in here. I'm working on getting a beta to catch those small mistakes, but any help at all would be fantastic)

Next chapter: Even more Zolu-ness.


	8. Misaimed Agression

So, I'm very glad that everyone liked the last chapter. (And like I told a few people, I love sneaky Robin) And so, this chapter starts off right where the last one left off.

Warnings: there's more language in this chapter than the last one, and there's just a hint of lime in this chapter. But nothing excessive.

So, thank you to **Rogue. Phoenix. ****Blaze** (sorry for spacing out your username. keeps deleting half of it), **Mad Hatter Usagi, Moonstar the Dragonwolf, PheonixShadow,** and **Zolufangirl17 **for your awesome reviews~!

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

"What do you mean helping?" Shanks asked, practically pulling at his hair. "Who exactly was _that_," he violently gestured to the door when Smoker had just left through. "helping?" and while he was there feeling like his head was about to burst, Robin just sat across the desk from him, one leg crossed on top of the other and her chin was resting on her fist. She looked entirely too calm for the situation.

"I'm helping Ace, of course." she told him. And her tone was polite, but there was a heavy helping of 'must we really go over this Shanks?' in there. "His previous situation with Mr. Smoker was quite pitiful. In fact, I was thinking that the poor boy was getting frustrated." Shanks took a deep breath before puffing up his cheeks and blowing air out through his mouth.

"Let me guess," he paused for a few seconds to consider the situation and Robin's reaction to it. Then he thought back to Smoker and Ace's argument and Smoker's complaints. "you think that Ace has a crush on Smoker, don't you?" he asked dryly after he was done thinking. Robin chuckled.

"No," she shook her head. "I'm almost positive that Ace does not have a crush on Mr. Smoker. But he _is _sexually frustrated. And he _is_ attracted to Mr. Smoker." Robin said, as if this validated her meddling. And Shanks, feeling a migraine, and the possible threat of a sexual harassment case, coming on, asked his next question nervously.

"Alright, so there's no crush." Shanks said quickly. He began squeezing the bridge of his nose. "Is this even a two sided thing?" he asked suddenly. "Because if you hadn't noticed, Smoker looked anything but pleased about the situation." The 'and I'm pretty sure he's straight' went unsaid. But Robin had noticed. Of course she'd noticed. The almost smug look on her face told Shanks so.

"Of course I noticed." she said anyways. "But Shanks, I believe we're both old enough to know that romantic feelings and sex don't always go hand in hand. Even original orientation won't matter as much in the right situation." She said, being both shameless and blunt. Shanks felt his cheeks heat up slightly but he slowly agreed with her. "Besides," Robin got up and walked around Shank's desk. She draped herself over his back and began talking into his ear. "Mr. Smoker is interested as well."

"How-"

"Body language." Robin said. And that was that. Ace and Smoker were apparently interested in sleeping with each other (something Shanks was still a bit weary to believe) and Robin was playing cupid. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"I better not get any lawsuits over this." was Shanks' only warning. He reached back and placed his hand on the top of Robin's head. He didn't ruffle it like he would with Luffy. Instead he just let it sit there until Robin straightened back up.

Don't get him wrong, Robin was a very beautiful woman, and the feeling of her…assets pressed up against his back was heavenly. But she didn't swing that way. Something it had taken him a while to get when they had first met each other. But after he had learned that she was more interested in women than men, he had stopped all advances towards her (that and she had threatened to break his nose twice before finally doing it).

And they ended up as friends instead. And a few months after that, Shanks had opened The Red Line Resort (although it had been much, much smaller), albeit with a lot of unexpected help from Robin and her mysterious connections. So Shanks had always made it a habit to either give Robin discounts on her rooms or let her stay for free because she without her, he never would have gotten as many sponsors and business partners as he'd gotten. In return, she'd sometimes get him connections to other famous stars and politicians. Honestly, he had no idea how Robin had made her connections or how far her influence spread. She never spoke about her childhood and Shanks had always doubted that some of the things she did were entirely… legal.

But he never brought it up, because everybody had skeletons in their closets. Some were just more grim than others (although his own skeletons were pretty nasty themselves).

Shanks, after a moment of hesitation, asked Robin another question. "Hey, why Ace?" Robin didn't answer after a few seconds and so Shanks reiterated. "I mean, why are you helping him?" 'In that really messed up way of yours' he added in his head. And it was an honest question. It had taken him weeks to get Robin to even hold a decent conversation with him. Back then, she hadn't been very open with people (the understatement of the year of course) and to see her now, actually looking happy and helping people seemed strange and wonderful at the same time.

Robin didn't answer for a few more seconds, but when she did, she had that little smile on her face. "He seemed like a good kid from the way you described him. And I thought that he just needed a push in the right direction."

"And?" Shanks asked, knowing that this wasn't the whole reason."

Robin smiled. "It was fun."

"I knew it!"

* * *

12:50 pm (Ace and Luffy's room)

Smoker meant to go to the employee's lounge. Honestly he did. But despite his best efforts, his feet carried him to the employee lodging instead. But not to his own room (he slept on the floor above this one actually). Oh no. Instead he found himself in front of the D brother's door. The rational part of him just told the rest of him that he was just here to yell at Portgas a bit more. Nothing less, and certainly nothing more.

He was standing right in front of the door, but he could still hear voices shouting on the other side of the door. He vaguely recognized it as some sort of East Blue Dialect. But he could tell that the argument, whatever it was about, was heated. In fact, he only had a few seconds of warning before someone began stomping towards the door. He quickly moved back and the door swung outward and hit the wall behind it. Damn, that sounded like it was going to leave a mark.

Luffy marched out of the room, an uncharacteristically dark look on his face. He didn't even look at Smoker. Ace, on the other hand, stood in the doorway, glaring at the back of Luffy's head. He didn't seem to notice Smoker either, until Luffy had walked through the door that led to one of the floor's elevators. When he did notice Smoker, he just folded his arms over his chest and glared at him. Although Smoker did notice the subtle look-over Ace gave him.

"Portgas," he began. He was trying desperately to remember why he'd even come up there in the first place. "I-"

"Come in." Ace said before turning around and walking back into his room. When Smoker didn't immediately follow him, Ace followed up with a "Either come in or I'll close the door.", and that was that.

The sound of the door closing behind him seemed to spark something inside Smoker. It seemed so final. And now looking at the distance between himself and Portgas, Smoker felt like he had locked himself in with some kind of… animal.

And that's exactly how Ace was looking at him. His eyes were calmly analyzing him. But there was a hint of something… stronger and more dangerous there.

"What is it?" Ace finally asked, breaking the silence between them. Smoker cleared his throat and felt a little of his composure come back.

"I wanted to know what the hell was up with you earlier today." Smoker said, and he was glad to hear that the growl was back in his own voice. A few feet away from him, Ace rolled his eyes.

"This again?" he muttered.

"What the hell do you mean 'this again'?" Smoker almost shouted at him. "Because as far as I know, we didn't discuss this the first time Portgas."

"No. No. I'm pretty sure we had a few words about this already." Ace said sarcastically. "Somewhere in-between you dragging me to Shanks' office like I was a three year old and you throwing me against his desk." Ace made the last half sound much more suggestive that necessary and Smoker felt the tips of his ears heat up slightly. "So yes, we _did_ talk. You just didn't _listen_."

Smoker resisted the urge to roll his own eyes. "Yes, of course. I must have just forgotten about our discussion. What with you about dry-humping that woman in public and all." Ace's ears turned red at this statement.

"It wasn't in public." Ace hissed. "It was in a hallway. Out of sight."

"'In a hallway' translates to 'in public' Portgas." Smoker snarled. "Look, I don't give a damn about what you do in your personal life Portgas. But that kind of thing belongs behind closed doors." Smoker waited for a response. But he was surprised when Ace cocked his head to the side and simply _looked_ at him.

"Is that what you really think?" he asked, walking forward until he was in Smoker's personal space. Smoker wanted to move backwards, but he refused to give even an inch to Portgas. "Really Smoker?" Ace's question seemed innocent, but his eyes were anything but. Smoker felt his throat become dry when Ace titled his head up a little more and looked Smoker right in the eye. He brought his hand up and rested it around Smoker's shoulders. "That door's closed." Ace said, and he sounded almost breathless.

Now Smoker was a relatively average man in relatively good health. He smoked more cigars a day that he should have, but it had never affected him too negatively. They'd certainly never affected his sex drive. So when Ace said this, he quite literally felt his self control snap and the oddly sexual feels he'd harbored towards Portgas, that he'd tried pretty damn hard to suppress, come roaring to life.

Smoker made a deep, feral noise before grabbing Ace's biceps and crushing his mouth against Ace's. The kiss was hot, and messy, and involved entirely too much teeth. But both of them continued on with a vigor.

Now, Smoker hated Ace. And Ace certainly didn't feel much better about Smoker. But there was that mutual-physical attraction between them. On it's own, it would be useless, especially for a long term relationship. But for flings like this, it was spark was all they needed.

And as Smoker pressed Ace down into his bed, a stray thought occurred to Ace. "We should put a sock on the door." he giggled and Smoker resisted the urge to smack him.

"For once kid," Smoker growled, pressing his erection into Ace's thigh. "Just shut your goddamn face."

* * *

1:08 pm (7th floor training gyms)

Luffy pounded at the sandbag with a vigor he usually saved for his more important matches. He was practicing his left and right hooks right now, but in a little while, he'd move on to practicing his kicks. But even as Luffy vented his anger through his fists, his stupid mind keep going back to Ace. For some reason, his brother was being a giant ass. Ace was acting like they were ten all over again and Luffy was just the weird kid who followed him around. The fact that Luffy didn't even know what Ace was so mad about played a large part into his anger.

Ace had said a lot of things to him back in their room, but why he was mad hadn't been one of them. And when Luffy had tried to bring Smoker up, Ace had begun verbally tearing into him. It got to the point, where Luffy had just had enough and he had left the hotel room (to hell with what Shanks said). He had ended up on the floor with all of the gyms on it before deciding to punch out his frustrations. The people running this particular gym had even given him a discount on the tape he'd used to wrap his hands once they saw the stormy look on his face.

And so, he imagined Ace's smug face as he pounded away at the sandbag. A few times, the pink haired girl's face from earlier would pop up, but Luffy would always push it away. She was weird and annoying, but he wasn't angry at her. 'Just Ace', Luffy thought before he continued his savage beat down.

At some point, he had begun throwing kicks and spins and head butts into the assault, but he didn't stop until his lungs felt like they were on fire, his throat was dry and scratchy, and his whole body was covered in sweat. His hands and feet felt like they'd gone through hell, but Luffy felt much better than he had earlier. When he finally turned around to look for his water bottle, he was blindsided by the towel thrown at his head.

He caught the towel and turned around to yell at the person who threw it. "Hey bast- oh Zoro?" Luffy's tone and body posture changed instantly. He went from angry and defensive to much more relaxed. Zoro was regarding him with equal calm.

"You're right." he finally said. "You're terrifying." Luffy looked between Zoro and the damaged looking punching bag.

"Eh, how long have you been here?" Zoro shrugged.

"I was on the elevator when you got on. You had this scary look on your face and you didn't respond when I tried talking to you so I followed you instead." Zoro admitted shamelessly. Luffy thought back to his time in the elevator. Zoro had been trying to talk to him? He surely would have heard him. But maybe not. Ace had _really_ gotten to him. "But you almost demolished that punching bag. I can really see why you're regarded as such a top tier fighter." Zoro continued. Luffy rubbed at his neck and shrugged.

As much as he really wanted to talk to Zoro, he just wasn't in the mood to do it. But Zoro seemed to understand this, because after his last remark, he remained quiet. Instead he just stood by the wall and watched as Luffy continued to abuse the punching bag.

Although it felt much more like training now. He had gotten most of his anger out and now he was practicing for the sake of practicing. His blows were becoming cleaner, more effective. And he was no longer huffing and puffing like some sort of wild animal. Instead he was calmly controlling his breathing. After a while, Luffy forgot that Zoro was even there. It wasn't until he actually stopped his workout that he actually remembered his green haired friend's presence.

"Hey Zoro!" Luffy said, plopping down next to Zoro. "Where are your swords?" he asked. Zoro grunted before handing Luffy a new towel.

"I told you. I didn't bring them. Remember?" he asked and Luffy tipped his head to the side.

"…yes?" he guessed and Zoro shook his head. But there was a little smile on his face.

"Honestly, you really are something."

"What do you mean?" Luffy asked, tilting his head to the side. He looked around for his work shirt. Because he hadn't planned to come here, he was still wearing his work shorts but he had tossed his shirt to the side. But Zoro just shook his head.

"It's nothing." Zoro paused. "So, are you over whatever funk you were in earlier?" He asked. Luffy didn't answer for a while and when he did, his voice was uncharacteristically quiet.

"I guess. Ace was being an idiot earlier but," he took a deep breath. "but that's his problem. I won't bother him about it anymore." And the two sat in silence for a while longer. Mostly because there was no need to fill the silence with words. Both of them were perfectly ok with just sitting there in each other's company. And as they sat there, many of the people who had avoided the gym during Luffy's furious workout came in. And the room was soon filled with the sound of men grunting.

"Hey Zoro. I'm hungry. Let's leave." Luffy said suddenly. Zoro nodded. He stood up and pulled Luffy up by his arm. Once on his feet, Luffy suddenly swayed. Zoro grabbed his arm and held him there when he almost fell over. "Ugh, my legs feel like lead." Luffy groaned before flopping over in Zoro's arms like a fish. Zoro considered dropping him.

"That's what you get for over-doing it." he said before pulling Luffy to the exit. "Where were you thinking about eating?" Zoro asked. Luffy shrugged.

"I just want meat." he groaned and Zoro humored him.

"Fine. We'll fine some somewhere."

"Hey Zoro, that reminds me! Something cool happened earlier today!"

"Oh yeah, what?"

* * *

4:45 pm (15th floor Tiki grill)

Zoro stared over the top of his drink at Luffy as he finished explaining the people he ran into earlier that day. A few in particular stood out. "You met Perona?" Zoro asked as Luffy described his cousin in vague but pretty accurate terms. "Jesus Christ, she's bad." he said and Luffy paused before answering.

"She looked at me weirdly." Zoro raised an eyebrow when he heard this. It wasn't unexpected after all. Perona could smell insecurities like a blood hound. But he was curious about what she'd said. What exactly would a guy like Luffy be insecure about?

"Yeah? And what did she say?" he asked.

"Oh, she didn't say anything?" Luffy said, digging into his meal. When he spoke next, his mouth was stuffed full of food. "Bum gurl 'opped 'er." And Zoro, who already had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly who Luffy was talking about, asked for a description of the girl. The one Luffy gave him was a bit hard to understand because of his stuffed mouth, but it was clear as day who he was talking about.

"I know her." he told Luffy. "We're, uh, getting married." Luffy's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline.

"What? How old are you?" Luffy asked, automatically giving Zoro a suspicious look.

"Not much older than you, idiot." Zoro returned. He didn't feel like explaining anything else so he just left it at that. Thankfully Luffy left it at that too. Instead he turned to Zoro and gave him the 'starved child' look and held up his bare plate.

"More?"

* * *

9:12pm (Ace and Luffy's room)

When Luffy got back to his and Ace's room he found Ace inside with all of the fans cranked on and the windows open. Luffy paused slightly before actually stepping into the room, and by that time, Ace had noticed him and had fixed him with a hard-to-read expression. Luffy closed the room door behind him and made a show of not looking at his brother as he collect up his pajamas and made his way to their bathroom. Once the bathroom door had closed behind him, Luffy let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and frowned. He told himself that he wasn't going to deal with Ace, and he wasn't.

But when he stepped out of the bathroom and Ace was _right _in front of him, Luffy almost jumped in surprise. "Ace, what-" Ace cut him off by wrapping his arms around Luffy's neck and pulling him into a bone crushing hug.

"_I'm sorry Lu."_ Ace muttered in their language. His East Blue accent was stronger now. _"I was being a dick earlier. I was out of line."_ He placed his chin on top of Luffy's head. _"Forgive me?"_ Ace asked. And he could just feel Luffy's smile against his collar bone.

Followed by a fist to his stomach. Ace made a strange, breathless noise before wrapping his arm around his midsection. Luffy just shook off Ace's other arm before walking past him, a wide smile on his face.

"_Yeah, I forgive you now."_

* * *

So yeah, Ace and Smoker's relationship will be a very physical one from here on. And that probably won't change since I like writing romances that aren't all the same. And with that being said, I have to address something. A lot of people say that they can't see Luffy being in a relationship because they think that he's asexual. And I totally agree with that. In this fic, Luffy is asexual. But contrary to popular belief there are more types of attraction other than sexual. (Take it from an Asexual Panromantic) So i'll be exploring those other types of attraction in this fic.

But i was listening to a buttload of Disney songs yesterday and I heard 'You're playing with the Big Boys now' from the Moses movie and i realized that it fit Katherine and Perona's roles in the story to a T. so yay for that little fun fact.

And also, thank you to anyone who reviewed my 'King of the Sea' fic. It means a lot to me.

See you on Thursday~


	9. Pressure Points

Warnings: there's more cursing in this chapter, and also the use of a gay slur. Also mentions of eating disorders and Perona just being...well Perona. But other than that...

But anyway, please enjoy this chapter!

* * *

So after the first few hectic days, the next week came and went a lot smoother.

Although Ace never told Luffy what had been bothering him, the two easily fell back into their brotherly routine. The only difference being that Luffy had been switched to Smoker's care ("When I say that I want you to follow me, Monkey, I _mean_ it. Stop wandering off!") and Ace had been switched to Lee's ("I had those piles organized Ace! Why did you move them? You're messing with my schedule!") because of Ace and Smoker's… relationship. Which, in case you were wondering, did help Smoker loosen up some (although he'd rather die than admit it).

Robin and Ace also visited each other frequently, but Ace had made Robin swear to not intervene in his relationships again ("No, trust me Ms. Robin." Ace sighed. "It was fun but not worth the headache."). Robin and Nami had also begun spending hours on end together in each other's company ("Wow, being an author sounds a lot harder than I thought it would." Nami laughed before asking a few more questions.). Robin had also been forced to promise Shanks that she'd refrain from doing any more 'fun' things around his resort ("Because we have two _very_ different definitions of fun." Shanks had told her, a helping of dry humor in his tone.).

And Usopp, whenever he wasn't working/being dragged around by Luffy, was usually either video chatting with Kaya or hanging out with Sanji. The latter who had, unsurprisingly, gotten a temporary job back at the G8 Grill. And the former would usually help him take his mind off of the latter ("Yeah Kaya, I'm doing fine. How's Italy?"). He was getting more comfortable around Sanji as well. Especially when he started acting less weird, and more like Sanji. Just a few days ago, Sanji had kicked him in the ass for being an idiot and then he immediately turned around to compliment a lady who was walking by. It hurt a little when the special treatment ended, but Usopp was glad that Sanji was treating him the same way he'd always treated him. It made him feel like any awkwardness was just all in his head.

Luffy, meanwhile, continued to skip out on work when he could and then hang out with Zoro. To him, Zoro was his new best, best friend that kinda made his chest hurt if he thought about him too much. He was quickly becoming one of Luffy's favorite people, right behind Shanks and Ace. Zoro, on the other hand, found it much easier to relax with Luffy than with the rest of his family. Mainly because Luffy wasn't psychotic. Tashigi and Kuina had taken to spending time with each other, while Perona usually entertained Katherine whenever they were doing whatever they normally did. Even his fiancée had taken to annoying him less. He only saw Sanji and his mother at night. The former because the blonde moron had taken to spending more time around the weird long nosed kid, while the latter was because his mother still ran her company, even on vacation. Zoro found that he couldn't complain about the situation.

But, as always, the mostly good times couldn't last. In something called 'The Domino Effect' one small change could in turn affect many other events. As a sort of rule, the catalyst was almost always something small. Something as small as a meeting in a hallway.

Or something as disastrous as the borderline emotional sadist Perona meeting the permanently self conscious Usopp in a deserted hallway.

* * *

It was an unspoken rule that when someone from the Mihawk household wanted something, then they got it. Always. Usually be any means necessary. Dracule himself only had to look at people with his gold eyes for them to crack. Jackie, or rather Jacqueline, usually relied on bribery and blackmail. The fact that she had little to no moral compass made her more efficient than most. Koshiro, Tashigi and Kuina's father, used more passive measures and was the most humane of the siblings.

But Perona had her own methods. She broke people down by aiming at the holes in their self worth. Making other people miserable made her happy. So when she found a particular delicious goldmine of self loathing and doubt, it felt like a second Christmas to her.

So when she had seen the blonde idiot's friend, she knew that she had to have him. Had to break him. So she learned about him. It was almost frightening how much people would talk when you used the right words or threw a few pretty looks their way.

But fortunately for her, Perona didn't have to do any of this. Just a few words, a few promises of what she would reveal about them, and Perona had all she needed to know about him. His mother had died when he was young (a restaurant worker had told her this) and his father had abandoned him (this came from one of the older janitors). He'd begun working at the resort when he was only 15 (from one of the retail women) and continued working up until now ( he was 19 apparently, just a year older than her). His father had died two years ago. But what Perona had learned next had been simply delicious.

Long nose used to be _fat_. And not just, 'muffin top' or 'my jeans are a bit tight' fat. _Morbidly obese and absolutely disgusting fat_. Oh~ The very thought made her shiver in delight. As opposed to the parents angle, insulting someone over their weight was much, much more fun.

With parents, you could misdirect anger. A person could turn the self loathing from themselves onto their parents. But with weight… Perona smiled and cackled a little as she twirled her umbrella. Weight was a very funny thing. Anorexia. Bulimia. Obesity. People were literally killing themselves over it. Whether it was men or women starving themselves to get that 'perfect look' or children bullying the fatter individuals in their school 'just for kicks'. Oh yes, weight and self loathing went hand in hand.

So when she finally cornered him in a hallway in the middle of his shift, she had the perfect plan of attack.

* * *

12:43 pm 24th floor

People usually talked about the whole 'I feel like someone's watching me' thing a lot in movies. And it was about ten times creepier in real life. As Usopp spun around yet again, a bunch of towels in hand, he looked around behind him, terrified when he didn't find anything. "C-creepy." Usopp narrowed his eyes and muttered. He turned around again, with his shoulders stiff and his back ramrod straight. "Too many scary movies." he muttered before vowing to stop watching scary things in the dark. He started walking down the hallway again but almost shrieked when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Something between a high pitched whimper and a screech erupted from his throat (it was a noise that Usopp would never, ever admit to making).

"Horohorohoro," Usopp spun around and saw a big eyed, pink haired girl standing there behind him (where had she come from?). "Aren't you loud?" she mocked him. Usopp, his face turning red, clutched at the towels tighter.

"W-"

"Don't start." The girl cut him off, placing a hand on her hip. "I already know who you are Usopp, so let's just skip the pleasantries." The girl smiled at Usopp's flustered face and Usopp, for a few moments, felt the temperature of the air drop about a dozen degrees. The idea that he was actually afraid of this girl crossed his mind and as hard as he tried to banish the thought, he couldn't. The girl looked like she only weighted about 130lbs at the most and she was half a foot shorter than him. But she terrified him all the same. "I know everything about you." she said quietly, her eyes narrowing. "So let's have some fun."

* * *

1:30 pm The G8 Grill

Sanji didn't see Usopp until the afternoon. He was just leaving the G8 kitchen when he spotted Usopp in the crowd. Usopp looked worse than he'd seen him in a long time. While Usopp had bulked up over the last two years he seemed even smaller than before. His curly hair had also lost a lot of it's bounce and just seemed to wilt against his back, while his skin was chalky looking. In fact, the last time he'd seen Usopp look like that had been right after his deadbeat dad had turned up dead. "Usopp!" Sanji called out before scowling when Usopp didn't answer. The was no way Usopp hadn't heard him. A few people glanced in his direction, but he ignored them. "Uso-" he called out louder, but Usopp glared at him from across the floor and it was enough to make him stop in his tracks. "The hell?" Sanji muttered as Usopp abruptly turned away from him.

This was getting absolutely ridiculous. "Usopp!" Sanji hissed, racing after him. He was stuck somewhere between keeping his composure and flat out running after Usopp. When he finally caught up to him (sometime during the two years he hadn't seen him Usopp had apparently mastered the art of speed walking), the two of them were out of the crowd, and in a hallway. Sanji grabbed Usopp's shoulder and spun him around so Usopp had no choice but to face him. "What. The. Hell?" Sanji almost snarled at him. If he didn't think that the situation called for a bit more subtly, then he might have kicked Usopp. But Usopp responded with an equally dark look. But underneath the anger, Sanji could see, that among other things, Usopp was terrified. Not that it wasn't normal to see Usopp freaking out or being nervous, but to see him actually like this was jarring, and it set Sanji on edge. Usopp quickly jerked back and out of his grasp.

"What is it Sanji?" He said quickly, not meeting Sanji's eyes. His gaze was stubbornly aimed at the ground and his cheeks were red from what Sanji assumed was exertion. What shocked Sanji was the fact that Usopp's eyes were red around the edges. Like he had been drinking… or crying. "Dammit, what the hell do you need?" Usopp's voice was painfully loud and It cracked at the end. Sanji narrowed his eyes at him.

"What the hell do I-? What the hell is up with you?" Sanji snapped and immediately regretted his outburst. Usopp's already wide eyes, seem to widen even more. As much as he regretted the fact, gentleness didn't come easily to him. He wasn't a person that people could just come and spill their guts to, and now it looked like it was biting him in the ass. But he couldn't help it. Usopp's mood seemed to be changing at a 100 miles per hour. And now he's being what? Defensive? Hostile?

"What the hell is up with me?" Usopp ran his hand through his hair and then yanked it out again. "What is- fuck! I don't even know." Usopp groaned before pressing his palms over his eyes. "I just ran into this weird girl and she told me some stuff and-and," But as sudden as he'd started, Usopp stopped. He took his hands away from his eyes and glared up at Sanji. "What is it anyway? What do you want Sanji?" Sanji, although he was confused about this whole conversation, was careful not to let it show on his face. And his blank expression only seemed to egg Usopp on. "For god's sake, what do you want from me Sanji?" and in his tone was a mixture of frustration, anger, and fear. Still confused as to what Usopp was going on about, Sanji decided to chance a possible minefield and ask the obvious question.

"What _the hell_ are you talking about Usopp?" Sanji asked. Usopp's expression darkened.

"Nothing. Fucking nothing." he snarled before turning around and stalking off. Sanji tried going after him again.

"Usopp, wait-"

"Stop!" Usopp snapped without looking back. His fists clenched and his posture seemed to waver. "Just leave me alone you- you faggot."

And just like that, Usopp left Sanji standing there.

* * *

12:20 pm Skypian Islands

"This place is so cool~!" Luffy shouted before grabbing a tree trunk and shimmying his way up until he reached the branches. Once he found himself a big enough one, he swung his leg over so that he could straddle the branch. "Hey Zoro! Smokey! Look!" Luffy called out, a huge grin on his face. From his position on the ground, Zoro humored him with a rare-around-others-but-not-really-Luffy smile.

"You can't stay in one spot for long can you?" Zoro asked, glancing at the tree Luffy was in before looking around at the surrounding foliage. The tree was certainly big, although it wasn't the biggest in the area. "How high can you climb anyway?" Luffy glanced up and shrugged.

"Probably to the top." he said before reaching up to the next branch.

"MONKEY!" Smoker's voice rang out and Luffy almost fell off of his branch. He instead wrapped his arms around it to avoid falling off. Zoro turned his head slightly to see Smoker marching up to them. "Get down, _NOW_." Smoker growled, his voice promising very dangerous things it Luffy didn't comply. "You are still on the clock, so act like it! And you," Smoker pointed at Zoro. "I can't threaten you with anything, but stop encouraging him. He's enough of a handful already." Zoro simply shrugged at Smoker, although he definitely agreed with the part about being a handful, before looking back up at Luffy.

"Hey, can you get down?" he asked. Luffy laughed.

"Of course. Of course." he said before quite literally jumping off of the branch.

"Hey!" Zoro and Smoker immediately shouted, both taken by surprise by Luffy's stunt. Granted, he was only about 10 feet off the ground, but it was still surprising to watch him suddenly roll off of the branch. And when Luffy landed he rolled before standing up again. Aside from his hair being a little more disheveled than usual, Luffy looked completely unaffected.

Smoker just snorted before turning around. "Just follow me Monkey." he sighed, sounding like he was entirely too old to be dealing with Luffy. Which he might have been. Neither Zoro nor Luffy really knew how old he was. Zoro meanwhile, had his hands in his pockets, and was instead looking Luffy up and down.

"You act like you do that kind of thing a lot." he noted and Luffy chuckled.

"Yeah! Where I grew up, there were a _ton_ of trees everywhere. So me and Ace could always climb around." Luffy immediately launched into a recap of some of his tree climbing adventures with Ace as he fell into step beside Zoro. In front of them, Smoker was talking to an old man with a long white beard. Occasionally the old man would glance back at them, but Smoker seemed content with just ignoring them.

If he had had his way, Zoro wouldn't have been there at all. But Smoker was a man of his word, and he had resolved to take care of Luffy because it meant that he didn't have to deal with Ace outside of their…bedroom activities. But Luffy certainly wasn't making his life easy. It seemed like as soon as he turned his back, Luffy would just disappear off to somewhere (Smoker finally learned where he would go just a few days ago). It had gotten to the point where Smoker would have considered anything if it meant that Luffy would stay on task. And if that meant dragging around Luffy's little punk friend, then so be it. That being said, Smoker still hated the situation with a passion. But it was still better than dealing with Portgas.

"You seem tense today Mr. Smoker." Gan Fall noted wryly. And Smoker resisted the urge to sigh.

"It's just the interns." he said gruffly. "Now anyway, what were you saying about the tourists?"

"It's just been a problem with some of the younger men lately. Mainly Wyper and Eneru picking fights with the people who visit here." Smoker grunted when he heard the names. Those two were trouble all right. Wyper had a hair trigger temper and tended to lose it when he felt that others were 'disrespecting his heritage'. Eneru, on the other hand, just liked messing with people. And tourists were easy targets. The fact that he also had a god complex to rival… well God, really didn't help.

"Fine. I'll deal with them." Smoker promised.

* * *

1:10 pm

Now, dealing with Eneru and Wyper was much easier said that done. First of all, it was hard enough getting them in the same place at the same time. Both of the belonged to different tribes on the islands and neither of their social circles mixed. But with a little arm twisting, both figuratively and literately, Smoker got both of them together. And they were now squatting in front of him. Wyper would a look or disgust and barely controlled anger, while Eneru looked entirely too pleased with himself.

Smoker folded his arms over his chest as he glared at both of them.

"I trust that both of you know why you're here." Smoker growled after a few minutes of silence. Behind him, Luffy was chatting it up with one of the local girls, a blonde girl in a pink dress and pigtails. Luffy's friend was lounging, or maybe he was sleeping, against a nearby tree. Wyper snorted at Smoker and Eneru just continued to give him a 'oh please enlighten me' look. "Fighting. You both were fighting with the tourist. And it's my job to make sure that you two stop." Smoker said before launching into his usual 'please leave the tourist alone because they're helping your economy and all that' speech. Neither Wyper nor Eneru even pretended to listen.

Meanwhile, Luffy continued to talk to Conis. "You have an East Blue accent," Conis noted and Luffy chuckled.

"Really? I thought I got rid of it." he laughed. Conis shook her head.

"It's good that you didn't." she said softly. "It's a nice accent. Most of the tourists that come here are a bit hard to understand but occasionally there'll be a really interesting accent." Conis babbled slightly. She broke off when Smoker began yelling at Eneru. She looked over at him and bit her lip.

"Oh, you know him?" Luffy noticed where she was looking. Conis nodded, although she looked embarrassed.

"Yeah, he's my brother." she pointed at Eneru. "He's older by five years and so he won't listen to me when I try and keep him out of trouble." Smoker got louder again and she flinched at his volume. "But you know, older siblings are like that." she sighed before she seemed to realize what she said. She glanced at Luffy to see if she'd offended him at all. "Oh, I'm sorry. I meant-"

"Ha! Don't worry about it." Luffy said loudly before slapping her on the back. She almost tumbled over but Luffy grabbed her arm. "My older brother Ace is like that." Luffy said before frowning. "In fact, Ace was being a jerk about something last week and wouldn't tell me what it was. He-"

"Hey trash!" A shouted interrupted Luffy and both him and Conis looked over to see Eneru absolutely glaring daggers at Luffy. "Where do you think you're putting your dirty hands?" Eneru asked, this time not even bothering to act like he was paying attention to Smoker. Both Luffy and Conis looked down to see that Luffy's hands was still on Conis' arm.

"Brother!" Conis said quickly. "He's not doing anything!" she turned to Luffy. "Please ignore him. My brother, well, he has a-" she was cut off when Eneru came over and grabbed Luffy's wrist. Luffy immediately let go of Conis. "Brother!" Conis sounded horrified this time. Meanwhile, Smoker was still in front of Wyper, although he was yelling at Eneru.

"Get your ass back over here punk!" Smoker snarled. While Wyper just rolled his eyes.

"What were you expecting?" Wyper said snidely. "He's an idiot." Truly a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

But Eneru ignored them all. "You shouldn't let trash touch you." Eneru said coldly to Conis, all the while giving Luffy a 'better than thou' glare. From his space in front of the tree, Zoro was watching the scene unfold; ready to intervene as needed. But unluckily for them all, Luffy wasn't a very tactful person; in fact, his very presence seemed to escalate things. And so something as simple as a possessive display quickly turned more hostile.

"What the hell are you talking about Earlobes?" Luffy asked with a frown on his face. He didn't tug his wrist back but he did flex the fingers. In front of him, Eneru was looking as if someone just slugged him, while Conis was standing to the side with her hands plastered over her mouth. Shock was written all over her face. Behind them, Wyper actually looked amused. "Are you some kind of idiot?"

Despite the fact that Eneru's rather long earlobes were one of the first things you noticed about him, you didn't comment on them. Because if you did, then things would turn ugly. A tourist had done it once and Eneru had kindly re-arranged his face for him. The resulting lawsuit had been quickly dropped. But since then, others had simply stopped commenting on them. Only Wyper was strong enough to get away with making the occasional, as in really rare, joke about them. And to just see this-this stupid bastard just standing there and insulting him made Eneru's blood boil. So he did what he did natural and drew his fast back, ready to wipe the stupid look off of his face.

What happened next went by very quickly. Zoro, the fastest acting of the ground, quickly reached over and grabbed the end of Conis' dress, the only part he could reach, and yanked her down and out of the immediate, and dangerous, area. Smoker was next, he immediately yelled at Eneru to stop, while Wyper immediately began encouraging 'The other stupid bastard' aka Luffy. Luffy's reaction took them all, except maybe Zoro, by surprise. Even with Eneru's fist aimed for his face, Luffy moved faster than him. He took the arm that wasn't being held by Eneru and grabbed Eneru's shoulder. He then let Eneru's fist sail past his head before quickly spinning around so that his back was against Eneru's chest. At the same time, he freed his arm from Eneru's grip, and placed it lower on Eneru's forearm. And with a practiced ease, he flipped Eneru over his shoulder.

* * *

1:36 pm

"You really are something." Zoro said again and Luffy began wondering if that was Zoro's favorite phrase or something. Both of them were sitting on the boat that would take them back to the resort. Smoker had put them in some sort of timeout while he went to try and fix some of the damage Luffy had caused. Because of their little scuffle, Eneru was mad and humiliated that Luffy had beaten him so quickly, while Wyper was strutting around like a damn peacock because Eneru had gotten his ass handed to him; something that made Wyper immensely happy. But the main problem was that the elders of the tribe disliked fighting on the island (although they usually turned a blind eye to Wyper and Eneru's fights) and now Smoker had to calm them down as well. He was, as he put it himself, 'in for a hell of a lot of paperwork'.

Of course Luffy found the whole situation funny. But he seemed genuinely offended that Smoker was mad at him. Especially because 'Earlobes started the whole thing', never mind Luffy's apparent 'encouragement'. All Luffy knew was that Shanks would probably yell at him for a while when he got back. But that didn't seem so bad now.

"Where did you learn how to fight anyway?" Zoro asked and Luffy had to think it over for a few seconds.

"Everywhere I guess." Luffy shrugged. "Grandpa's in the Marines so he wanted me to be a marine too and he'd occasionally teach me stuff. And then me and Ace had to survive out in the woods a lot so we learned some stuff there." Luffy began rambling and by the time he was done, he'd raised several more questions that Zoro, frankly, didn't feel like asking.

"Interesting." Zoro said. And it was true. Luffy was, if nothing else, interesting. "I just learned in my uncle's dojo. Two years ago, my other uncle began training me." Zoro explained and left it at that. Luffy nodded.

"Well, I want to see it one day. Zoro's dojo!" Luffy declared and his hand brushed Zoro's.

A shiver went up both of their spine's at the touch and after a few seconds, Luffy did it again, deliberately this time. He watched Zoro's face for a reaction, but whatever he saw must have been encouraging because he then grabbed Zoro's hand. Luffy's hands were rough and just a little bit too cold, but Zoro found that he didn't mind. Instead he just would his finger's around Luffy's because it felt like the right thing to do. Like instinct really. And Zoro followed his next impulse without thinking about it either. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he brought their entwined hands up and pressed his lips to Luffy's hands.

It was a sappy move, and Zoro immediately thought that it was something that Sanji would do. But he immediately stopped thinking when Luffy gave him a bizarrely radiant smile.

But despite the fluttery feeling rising somewhere in his gut, the next thing Zoro thought was 'What the hell am I doing?'

* * *

So unfortunately, summer's ending where I live so I can't update twice a week anymore, so I apologize for that.

I also apologize if Usopp was too OOC in this chapter. I tried to draw from his interactions with Kuro and his fight with Luffy for inspiration for this scene. But honestly, I love to write characters causing trouble for other characters. First Robin, and now Perona.

One Piece girls must have really strange senses of humor~

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and a special thanks to anyone who takes the few minutes to review/fav/alert whatever. (I know that when I review I'm pretty blunt so don't feel like you need to mince words if there's anything I really messed up in here).

Until next week!


	10. When the Dust Settles

Warnings for:... not really anything? maybe language. And slight OOC-ness.

Also, I'm sorry I didn't think my reviewers last week. Your reviews mean a lot to me, so here are the thank yous for the last two weeks:

A very special thanks to **Hirota**, **Azab**, **Rogue. Phoenix. Blaze**, **H****eavensentskysky**, **Mad Hatter Usagi**, **Mugiwara-Cristal**, and one **Anon**. Thank you for taking the time to do so.

In the future, if I don't update on time, then please look at my profile (if you care last week). For instance, I started on this chapter a few days later than normal because I had to attend a family gathering. Sorry, I just want to avoid any really late updates without notice or AN dedicated chapters.

Enjoy~

* * *

1:58 pm Katherine and Perona's room

Katherine stretched out on the couch in her and Perona's room like an overgrown house cat. Her hair was tied back in a pony tail to keep it from falling into her face while her right hand was held high over her head. Three of the five nails were painted a bright cherry color. In her left hand was the nail polish brush. She inspected her nail job before frowning. "What I wouldn't give to be ambidextrous right now." She sighed before continuing. Honestly she didn't care if her nails were painted or not, but she was just so _bored_ right now. Anything to distract her was welcome.

She had just finished her right hand before she started on her left. The door to the hotel room opened and closed right after she'd started on her pointer finger. Katherine glanced over and saw Perona standing with her back to the door, a sly grin on her face. "Well, you look happy Per-Per." Katherine said dryly, taking note of the fact that Perona didn't snap at her for the stupid nickname. Something good _must_ have happened. "Tell me then, what's got your gloomy spirits up." This time she sat up. She was mindful of her manicure though.

Perona, however, just giggled. "Nothing you need to know about." She said before laughing. The smugness was just radiating off of her. 'Must have given some poor idiot hell.' Katherine concluded before twisting back around so that she was spread out on the couch again.

"Whatever." she sighed.

* * *

At a house in the West Blue

Kaya looked up from her medical textbook as her phone rang. She glanced at the screen before quickly putting the book down and picking up the phone. "Usopp!" she said in a slightly breathless voice. She glanced over to where her butler was sitting before quickly moving to the door. "I just need to rest for a while Merry." she called over her shoulder as she left. She flipped the phone open as she walked down the hallway towards her bedroom. "Hello Usopp." Kaya said happily.

"Hey Kaya." Kaya immediately frowned when she heard Usopp's voice. "Do you think that you could video chat right now?" She immediately thought back to two years ago when his father had died. Usopp sounded the same right now as he had back then. She chose her words carefully.

"Of course Usopp." After a bit of consideration she refrained from asking him what was wrong. "I'll be set up in a minute." she said, closing the door behind her. She ended the call before pulling her laptop out and plugging it in. She logged onto the chat service that her and Usopp normally used and after about a minutes, he logged on too. He invited her to a video chat and she quickly accepted. After re-arranging her webcam, she sat back in her bed and held her stuffed ram doll to her chest. "Hey Usopp." she said quietly when he saw her appear on her screen.

"Hey Kaya." Usopp muttered. Usopp looked tired. His eyes were slightly red and his shoulders were slumped. He seemed to droop towards his webcam. "Sorry about the short notice." he said. Kaya quickly shook her head.

"No problem Usopp! You can call me up anytime." she said quickly. When she looked back at the screen, Usopp had his elbow resting on his knee and his hand propped up in his chin. "Wha-what did you want to talk about?" Usopp sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Uh, anything." he muttered. "Just, please, start talking about anything. I- I just can't be alone right now." Kaya barely heard the last part of the sentence, but it didn't matter. They had done this before.

"Well," Kaya started, "Earlier in the week, Merry took me to a see a famous West Blue Doctor-" And Kaya continued to rambling, pretending not to notice when Usopp buried his face in his hands and his shoulders began shaking. "Then we went to a museum! Even after all of this time, I can't believe how old a lot of the buildings around here are. It's very-"

"Kaya-" Kaya immediately stopped talking. "I don't even know how,or even what's happening," Usopp began sobbing and Kaya wished desperately that she could just reach through her monitor and hold him. "but-but I really, really messed up somehow."

* * *

1:40 pm Zoro and Sanji's Room

Tashigi leaned back against Sanji's headboard and continued to flip through her gossip magazine. A few feet away from her, Kuina was ungracefully stretched out on Zoro's bed. Her head was hanging halfway off of the bed and one of her feet was propped up on Zoro's pillow.

Even though the twins would have rather been spending the day in their room, unfortunately there had been some kind of piping issue and they had had to leave for a while. And since neither one of them had wanted to go out that day, they had opted instead to go to Zoro's room. Zoro, surprisingly, hadn't been there, but they had been able to get in with one of the copies of the room card. And so there they were.

But suddenly, the sound of footsteps right outside the door made Tashigi look up and jolted Kuina out of her sleep. They made eye contact and Kuina quickly sat up and tried to make it look like she hadn't been sleeping. Zoro was oddly possessive of his 'napping places'. But they were both surprised when the door busted open, and instead of their cousin, stood Sanji.

Now, it shouldn't have been surprising to see Sanji, seeing as this was his room too, but Tashigi and Kuina were taken aback by his attitude. Around them, Sanji had always been polite, if not a little creepy. But now he was nothing like that. The door slammed into the wall and made Tashigi and Kuina jump. Sanji stormed into the room and the first thing he did was take the cheesy snow globes that had been stationed on the table near the door and chuck it, as hard as he could, against the opposite wall. The snow globe shattered and left a large stain on the wall. Sanji, apparently not appeased by the display of anger, grabbed at his hair with both hands and let loose a string of curses so dirty that both Kuina had half of a mind to stuff a bar of soap into her mouth. Sanji turned around so that his back was to them and continued snarling to himself.

'Kuina!' Tashigi mouthed at her sister, her eyes wide with confusion. 'Do something!' she gestured at Sanji's back. Kuina shook her head quickly.

'No! I don't know what to say!' she gestured back. But the bed squeaked underneath her and Sanji's back tensed up.

"Oh," his voice was flat. "You two are here." he stated. Tashigi and Kuina didn't question how he knew that it was them. He'd probably say something obscure, like the smell of their perfume. Sanji sighed and shoved his hands into his coat pockets but he didn't turn around. "I'm sorry you two had to see that." Tashigi and Kuina glanced nervously at each other. "Now if you'll excuse me-" he started turning the doorknob again. "I'll just-"

"Wait Sanji!" Tashigi said quickly, glaring at her sister. "Um, Sanji please, um wait- what happened?" She asked, half afraid that he'd ignore her. And for a few seconds, it seemed like he would. But after a pause, Sanji let out a weary sigh. He didn't look at either of them but he did walk back. And when he came to his bed, he just flopped down on it next to Tashigi. Tashigi quickly moved over to Zoro's bed to give him more room. After a few seconds, Sanji finally turned over and looked over at them.

"Well then, ask away." He told them. Tashigi glanced over at Kuina, who was still looking confused. So she decided to ask the obvious.

"What happened Sanji? Was it-?" And then she stopped because she realized that she had no idea what would make Sanji mad. At all. His fights with Zoro never left him like this and she'd never seen him act like this after being rejected by a woman, so she literally couldn't understand what it would be.

Sanji, who seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, smiled. It was a small one, but it was much more sincere than the ones he normally used. "I had an argument with a friend." Sanji told them. "He was acting weird so I confronted him, he got mad and stormed off. That's all." Tashigi and Kuina raised their eyebrows in disbelief at the same time. Storming in and breaking things over 'nothing'? And their disbelief seemed to be so obvious that Sanji immediately followed up with, "He's a close friend."

"And he's normally not like that?" Kuina asked this time. Sanji shook his head.

"No. He's usually pretty calm; also a little jumpy. But this time," Sanji sighed again. "It was like he'd lost his damn mind. He had so many mood swings that I couldn't even keep up. One minute he was sad and the next minute he was biting my head off." Sanji absentmindedly reached towards his breast pocket before remembering that his cigarettes weren't in there. Besides, he told himself ruefully, it would be rude to smoke in front of women. Zeff had really beat that lesson into him. "So I lost it a little." he finished quietly. Kuina stared at Sanji like she was considering something, but after a few moments of thought, she crawled across Zoro's bed and sat at the edge of Sanji's bed. She placed a hand on his forehead and watched his eyes widen.

"You remind me of Zoro." she said softly. She smiled when the comparison drew the desire reaction. Sanji's lip curled and he looked like he was about to get up and move. So Kuina continued quickly. "When he was younger, you know?" she said wistfully. "Before he became all… well, silent." Kuina glanced over at the wall as she remembered her cousin when they were younger. Before her accident.

"He used to be really happy, you know." she said and she was embarrassed to hear her own voice falter. The corners of her eyes began stinging from the tears she was holding back. "But I guess our family got to him in the end. Our family's full of crazies, you know." she glanced back at Sanji. "His mother…she's not right in the head." she stated. There was no judgment in her voice. "Neither is his girlfriend, Katherine. Even his cousin, Perona isn't well." She paused for a few seconds. "He-he just sort of attracts people that need help, even if they don't know it themselves. And despite his demeanor, he's pretty damn helpful like that." Over on Zoro's bed, Tashigi had also looked away. She knew about the problems in their family and how Zoro seemed to bear the brunt of it, and she felt ashamed because she knew that what Kuina was talking about applied to her as well.

After her sister's accident, she hadn't been able to cope well. She hadn't been a strong person. And in some ways she still wasn't. So Zoro had let her lay the blame on him instead, because God knew how it was easier to blame a person than just accept that bad things happened. And he was still letting her blame him. Tashigi rubbed at her eyes. Unlike Kuina's tears, which came more from sorrow, hers were more of frustration. All of it at herself.

After a few seconds, Sanji spoke. "I'm sorry, but I don't-"

"Oh, sorry." Kuina said quickly, remembering her original train of thought. "Like I was saying, you reminded me of his because both of you have such rough exteriors," she tucked some hair behind her ear. " and you push people away. Zoro, he doesn't let anyone in and you-" she paused. "In the last two years, I've never seen you as, well, honest or sincere as you are right now." She gave a half hearted shrug. "If your friend is so important to you then maybe you should show your friend some sincerity. If they're in a bad place then it would help them to know that you really care about them." Kuina grabbed Sanji's hand and rubbed the back of it.

"But," she sighed, and a small smile appeared on her face. "You don't have to listen to me. No one really does anymore."

* * *

5:23 pm Shanks' office

When Shanks finally stopped yelling, his throat hurt. "Now," he rasped, "get out before I make you mop some floors, Luffy." Luffy quickly nodded before running out of his office. Shanks, who was resisting the urge to strangle Luffy, sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Things were so much easier when he was just a little brat and I could just send him to the corner." he told himself. Shanks said fondly before sitting down so that he could finish the paperwork that his devil of a secretary had given him.

* * *

"Done already?" Zoro asked when he saw Luffy charge down the hallway. The smile on his face told Luffy that he'd heard Shanks' whole tirade. Luffy stuck his tongue out at Zoro.

"Shut up." He said before folding his arms over his chest. But his frown quickly turned into a grin. "Now, come on!" Luffy urged, grabbing Zoro's wrist and dragging him down the hall. Zoro noticed that since the incident just a few hours ago, Luffy had taken to touching him more. But he found that he didn't mind much. Luffy didn't jab Zoro like Perona would have and he didn't have Katherine's 'wandering hands'.

"Where are we going exactly?" Zoro asked when Luffy dragged him into the elevator.

"My room." Luffy said happily. "Ace told me that Lee gave him extra work because he was messing with her paperwork so he was going to be out for most of the day." Luffy laughed. "Ace is so stupid!" Zoro chuckled as well, although he'd hadn't seen Ace since the boat incident.

"I bet he's not nearly as bad as you are."

"Hey!" Luffy shouted, and his voice echoed in the elevator. Zoro, without thinking, slapped a hand over Luffy's mouth. And Luffy reacted like any small child would. He licked Zoro's palm.

"Son of a-" Zoro shouted, drawing his hand back. Luffy immediately started laughing like an idiot. "You are disgusting!" Zoro shouted, but he sounded more disbelieving than actually angry. Luffy's smile was infectious. "Come here!" Zoro shouted and grabbed Luffy with his dry hand and pulled him close. Luffy was taken by surprise and ended up pressed against Zoro's chest. Zoro looked down at Luffy with an expression similar to the ones that Ace would wear before doing something nasty to Luffy.

"Zoro, wha-" Luffy's shout was cut off when Zoro tried shoving the hand that Luffy licking in his face. "Zoro stop!" Luffy shouted, grabbing Zoro's wrist with one hand and pushing against his chest with the other. Except he's still laughing and Zoro's laughing too. Luffy trained in vain to wriggle away but Zoro was relentless.

"Man up." Zoro told him. "It's your spit anyway."

"No, it's gross!" Luffy shouted and he stuck his tongue out at Zoro. And Zoro looked like he wanted to retort, but the moment is brought to an end when the elevator dings and the doors slide open. Zoro quickly stops and Luffy turns around to see a resort employee standing there with an eyebrow quirked and a 'really guys?' expression on her face. It was clear that she really wanted to make some sort of sarcastic comment.

"Look it's our floor!" Luffy shouted after the silence had stretched on for a few seconds. He grabbed Zoro again and dragged him out past the girl. As Luffy dragged him to his and Ace's room, Zoro wiped his hand on the back of his pants. At the door, Luffy immediately let go of Zoro so that he could search for his room key. And after digging the key out of his pants (a part of Zoro wants to ask why he would put the key there, but he doesn't), Luffy jammed it into the door and unlocked it. "Come on!" Luffy shouted, pushing Zoro into the room.

Zoro glanced around the room. It looked the same as his and Sanji's but instead of things being thrown everywhere, all of the mess and clutter was just shoved into a corner of the room. Luffy ran past Zoro and jumped onto his bed, kicking his feet up into the air.

"Hey Zoro, sit!" Luffy ordered, pointing over at Ace's bed. Zoro paused for a moment before settling down on Ace's bed. He was then surprised when Luffy then leapt from his bed onto Luffy's lap.

"Ooph!" Zoro made a strange noise as the wind was knocked out of him. Luffy continued to laugh. Zoro tried to shove Luffy off, but Luffy responded by twisting around and grabbing Zoro's face.

"Zoro's funny." Luffy stated bluntly. Zoro quirked an eyebrow.

"Really? Luffy's annoying." Zoro mimicked and Luffy frowned at him.

"Am not."

"Are to." They continued to playfully bicker. Until Luffy leaned in closer to prove his point.

"Am not." Luffy stretched out the 'not' slightly. Zoro paused for a second before tilting his head up slightly and pressing his lips to Luffy's.

"Hmm," Zoro hummed before drawing back. "Fine. You aren't annoying but you are loud." And then what he did struck him. He had a fiancée. He was engaged for Christ sake!

But, he considered, it wasn't like Katherine would care. She herself slept around when she got bored. She wouldn't care enough about their relationship to care if Zoro _kissed_ someone else. But he silenced those thoughts. Instead he stared at Luffy to gauge his reaction.

Luffy, for his part, looked surprised. It wasn't as if he'd never been kissed before (contrary to what his brother and friends believed, Luffy _did_ actually know about things like kissing and sex) because he had been. Several times. He just didn't expect it from Zoro. "Huh?" he asked. "What was that for?" Zoro, because he couldn't really think of a reason himself beside 'it just felt right' shrugged. "Oh, ok then." Luffy said before smiling. He leaned down to kiss Zoro, although he was more forceful than Zoro had been. Zoro, brought his hands up from where they'd been resting at his side and placed them on Luffy's hips. The whole process felt easy and comforting. He ran his thumbs up and down Luffy's sides. He was surprised when Luffy suddenly jerked to the side.

"What's the problem?" Zoro asked when Luffy pulled away. He moved his hands up Luffy's side again and Luffy jerked away again before slapping a hand over his mouth. But the damage was done. Zoro himself snorted. "Don't tell me," he smirked. "are you really _ticklish?_" Luffy frowned. He said it like Ace!

"Hey!" Luffy shouted. But he stopped when Zoro quite literally pushed him over. "Wait-" Luffy shouted before clamping his hands over his mouth. Zoro's hands immediately began moving up and down his sides. "Gah-! Zoro-" Luffy said between fits of laughter. "Stop! I'll- I'll hit you-" He promised, but unlike Ace, Zoro actually heeded his warning (there had been a few times where Ace had tormented Luffy and Luffy had resorted to punching his in the groin to make him stop) and let go of him. Although Zoro was still hovering over Luffy with an unusually large grin on his face. Luffy, as he was coming down from his laughter induced high, placed his hands on Zoro's chest instead.

Zoro, from his vantage above Luffy watched as his laughter subsided and Luffy was just left there staring at him with bright eyes. It was strange really. Zoro had been in this position before, with women and some men, and it had always led to sex.

But right here, right now, he didn't feel like actually doing anything. And by the way that Luffy's hands _weren't_ trying to remove his shirt, he figured that Luffy felt the same way. So instead, he just pulled Luffy up into a hug and rolled them onto their side so that he could wrap his arms around Luffy's shoulders. Luffy wrapped his arms around Zoro's waist. "Hey Zoro," Luffy piped up. Zoro didn't move but he glanced down at Luffy.

"Hmm?"

"Zoro's still really cool."

* * *

6:02 pm Nami and Vivi's Room

"-and she's unbelievably smart." Nami said as she continued to flip through the tv channels. On the bed next to hers, Vivi was checking her email on her computer.

"I'm sure she is." Vivi said with a smile on her face. She opened a few more browsers before turning to Nami. "Nami~" she sang, "you sound like you're love struck." she teased. Nami rolled her eyes before tossing one of her pillows at her.

"Whatever Vivi." she smiled. "Can't I have a few celebrity crushes?"

"Oh, so you do like her?" Vivi laughed before tossing the pillow back.

Nami caught her pillow and fluffed it a few times. "Of course." she smirked. "Have you seen her? She is _gorgeous_!"

* * *

I admit, I feel a little sorry for anyone reading this fic who doesn't like Sanuso. Because, I know if I was reading a Acelu/Shanlu/whatever fic, and there was something like ZoSan in there, then I'd be a little bummed.

But anyway, like I stated before, I don't imagine Luffy and Zoro having a very sexual relationship, so it won't be sexual in this fic. Mainly sensual attraction. Kinda like Greece and Japan from Hetalia.

But anyway, sorry about the late update. I've been working on a few cosplays because my next convection (San Japan) is in about a week. Is anybody else happen to go~?

Anyway~ thank you all for reading (even if you don't review).


	11. The more you know

Jesus christ. I need to start re-reading these drafts more before I post them. This chapter was slightly delayed (again) because I saw a lot of stupid typos in the draft. It seems like the closer it gets to the school year, the worse my writing gets.

Warning: This chapter is more... well graphic, I guess, than the last few. Personally, I think it's funny that a lot of people hate my OC Katherine and I planned to go into her backstory as some point before deciding why not here? This chapter also features some discussion about abuse and I just needed to make something clear: I'm not making light of any type of abuse or crime featured in this chapter. If it seems insensitive, it is because the character speaking about the abuse is insensitive.

Character-wise, I'll telling her backstory now because I figure if you want to hate a fanfic character, you should at least wait until you know at least their backstory before doing so. That being said, I'm not using her backstory to excuse her actions or anything like that. Because if I wanted her to be a more sympathetic character, I would have done that a long time before now.

Other than that, there's only the normal chapter warnings for things like language.

As always, A lovely thanks to **Kyouko68, Akatem, ASLShanks, Zolufangirl17, Rogue. Phoenix. Blaze, Solace in the Chaos, killerpuppy, Tsukiyomi, Azab, and Mad Hatter Usagi** for your wonderdul reviews.~ They are always appreciated.

But some of the reviews I get make me think that I should put a warning up in the first chapter. Something about this not being a zoluCentric story. It kinda focuses a little bit on everybody because I always find that stories that focus on more that two people are more interesting that ones where we only see the couple and no one seems to have a life outside of them. But anyway, I'll stop now.

Enjoy~

* * *

When she'd realized that she was a psychopath, it hadn't come as much of a surprise. Really. She had known that she was different. She said and did things that other people wouldn't have dared to. And she didn't regret her actions like other people would. She didn't even seem to feel anything most of the time. That's why she loved thrills. Whether it riding a motorcycle at full speed without a helmet, or just screwing with people. Whatever let her feel something other than complete boredom was always welcome.

Sex had was had been a big thing for her as well. Bondage, gags, strap-ons. It all worked for her just so long as she was the one in control. Because control, especially complete control, was always better than most other cheap thrills. Which is why she stayed with Zoro. As long as she didn't bother him when he was in his uncle's shitty dojo, he didn't care what she did. He was also useful for chasing away any clingy one night stands. There was nothing like the threat of a guy with a scary face and three swords to make any man run.

But for her, violence went hand in hand with sex. The first time she saw people having sex, when it wasn't on her father's computer, was when she was ten. Her father, who had been a sad passive man, had gotten into an argument with her domineering and abusive mother and in the heat of the argument, the two had forgotten about her and her mother had sodomized her father with one of her strap-ons.

9 years later, Katherine was still trying to erase the memory, but like any other stubborn thought, the more she tried to forget, the more she remembered; the moans, grunts- everything was still vivid to her.

Personally, Katherine had always thought it funny how some people believed that women, because they were the 'fairer sex', were not, and could not be, capable of extreme violence. She, herself, was proof that anyone of any age could be capable of violence. After all, she'd killed her own parents before she'd even hit age 15.

Her mother had been first. Honestly, she hadn't cared when her mother had beat her father. Despite them raising her, she'd never cared for either of them. No. It was when her mother had tried treating her the same way that Katherine had snapped.

The crime had been simple enough that a child could have pulled it off. She did it when she was 13 after all.

Her mother had liked to drink a lot. She hgad been an alcoholic, and it had been commonplace for her to be out all night drinking, only to return early in the morning, barely able to see straight. So one night, Katherine had just placed one of her toys at the top of the stairs. She, herself, usually slept downstairs in the basement and her mother had taken to waking her up and harassing her when she came back from her binges. So that time, instead of being woken up by her mother's blows, she woke up to the sound of ambulances and the news that her mother had broken her neck. She had fake cried all the next morning. Just long enough for it to look like she was actually sad about her mother's death.

But even though she had known that she'd had the police and close family members convinced, she'd always had the feeling that her father suspected something closer to the truth. Because he was very meticulous. And she had taken after him in that sense. So for her to just leave her toys out like that seemed to strike up the slightest smidge of doubt. Which is why he would die just a year and a few months later.

After her mother's death, her father had taken to asserting himself more, and drinking more. It had seemed like without her there to put him down, he was becoming the person he'd always wished he could be around her. But he couldn't, because she was dead and gone. But luckily, or in the long run unluckily, Katherine had grown up looking like her mother. Same green eyes (she wore contacts now) and curly blonde hair. And so at first, he would just complain to her. Mainly about how bad her mother had been. But then it escalated to him treated her like she had treated him. Minus the sexual abuse. He had never quite gone that far.

Then one night, when he was piss drunk, he just came out and accused her of her mother's death. He had spewed things like 'ya' neva' leave-leave anything' out' and 'murda'in lil bitchlet'. And that's when she knew that he'd have to go as well. He was getting more and more unstable. So, like her mother, she'd used his own habits against him.

After drinking a beer, her father had always liked to clean out the bottle before putting it in the trash bin. Mainly because his harpy like sisters had forced him to do the same in the youth. He'd also developed a bad habit of mixing his pain medication with alcohol. Something his doctor had warned him against time and time again. So one night, when he'd gone to the living room to smoke a cigarette, she'd taken a handful of his pills and pushed them one by one down into his open beer bottle. By the time he'd come back, she'd holed herself up in her bedroom and the pills had all dissolved, leaving behind a deadly drink. The strong alcohol had covered up the bitter taste of the medicine. And, because of his habit of cleaning out the bottle, he'd gotten rid of almost any evidence that would have made the incident look like anything more than an accidental overdose. All she had to do was wipe her prints from his medication bottle and wait until morning.

And the next morning she had fake cried again. When she 'woke up' she had screamed and screamed her little head off at the sight of her father slumped over on the kitchen table, his eyes glassy and his mouth half open. The neighbors had rushed in and the police had been called and the murder ruled an Accidental Overdose. After that, she'd been passed around in foster care, each of those parents slightly better than her birth parents. And if there hadn't been anything wrong with her before that point, before she'd singlehanded killed her own parents, then there would have been afterwards.

Instead, she relied on and relished the fact that she didn't have any emotions, any regret. She lost her virginity at age 15 in the hood of some idiot's car. And when he tried to pursue a relationship with her, she blackmailed him with the threat of turning him in to the police as a sexual predator. Even to this day, she'd never seen somebody run so fast.

She finally met Jackie Roronoa when she was 17. And the woman's presense had instantly stuck her. As if she was looking at herself in ten or twenty years. And Jackie had apperently felt the same way because then she had taken her under her wing, introduced Katherine to her son and that had been that.

Zoro, for whatever reason, had taken to her. He'd put up with her moods, her sexual advances, and her games. She suspected that it was because of his mother, but she had never felt the need to ask. And with the rest of his family, she ended up hating. She rarely saw either of his uncles, but she at least acted civilly towards them. Tashigi and Kuina were fun to tease and torment. Mainly because the both of them were already so high strung. They were more prideful than anyone like them had a right to be. And with Perona, she normally took delight in the other girl's macabre attitude and style. Although she rarely went all out with tormenting her because Perona could really hold her own in a mental-fuckery game.

As for everyone else, well, she could have cared less about them. People were like ants to her. Not even worth the effort of tearing them down.

* * *

8:32 am 16th floor resteraunt

"You know," Katherine said, winding a long lock of blonde hair around her finger as she continued to flip through her phone messages. She was currently leaning her elbows on the table. Across from her, Jackie Roronoa sat with her back straight and a menu folded in front of her. She was messaging someone on a PDA. Jackie's eyes flickered up for a few seconds when Katherine began talking. "I think your son is _cheating_ on me." she said in a sing song voice. Jackie, apperently feeling that the conversation wasn't worth her time, looked back down.

"Is that so?" she mused. "Well, that sounds like something you should handle yourself then." If it had been anyone but Zoro, then Jackie would have suggested cheating back. But not with her son. She loved Zoro too much. Or, at least, she loved him as much as someone like her was able to. "Find the other girl and throw a fit or something. Be creative."

"I know." Katherine said before leaning closer. "But aren't you _curious_? Zoro of all people? With a lover?" she giggled. "If it wasn't for our occasional 'roll in the hay' then I would think that he was completely asexual." she said dismissedly. She tapped her nails against the table. "And now I'm curious." she smiled. "What kind of bitch would Zoro go for?"

Across the table, Jackie smiled herself. "Why don't you follow them? Or else ask Perona. She seems to always know more than she should." Jackie suggested before looking up to see the waiter heading for their table. "Oh, look. Food." She smiled a playful smile. Across from her, Katherine was smiling her own cheshire smile. All the while thinking of something absolutely devious.

* * *

10:02 am Robin's room

Nami listened attentively as Robin went on and on about the differences between civilizations and the ruins that they left behind. If this had been any other place, at any othet time, she would have already walked away, bored to tears with the conversation. But her conversation with Robin was interesting. They always were.

When she was in her element, Robin could sometimes ramble on for hours. During which Nami learned more than she usually did during her classes. Occasionally Robin would pause mid conversation to jot down a note or two in the notebook she carried around. And every time she looked back up there would be a little spark in her eyes. Just thinking about it made Nami's insides wiggle around a little like they would on a particularly fun rollercoaster. As far as she knew, she had a crush on Robin.

And she was slowly discovering that she had a _'thing'_ for educated people. Not that the people she usually dated were morons (although few particular relationships stood out- like her super short fling with a moron named Duval). But none of them could hold a candle to Robin conversationally. Which isn't to say that she didn't also contribute to the conversation sometimes.

Weather and Meteorology were the only things she truly excelled in. They also happened to be some of the things that Robin wasn't already super educated in. So whenever they weren't discussing things like history and books, Nami would explain the weather, the sea, ocean patterns, all of it. And Robin, who seemed to be a sponge for information, soaked it up. And all the while she would have a little humorous smile on her face. Which of course would only make Nami ramble on more so that she could see that smile.

'she's smiling again.' Nami told herself happily as Robin placed one chin on her hand and continued to give her her full and undivided attention. And while she was talking about weather pattens on the outside, on the inside her heart was going 100 miles an hour.

* * *

9:25 am With Smoker

Luffy sang in a loud and off key manner as he continued working behind Smoker. The two were moving boxes in one of the hotel storage rooms and going through the complaints that had been filed. It wasn't really their job, but Smoker had taken it on because the person normally in charge of it had called in sick.

But while Smoker appreciated the fact that Luffy wasn't talking to him, or yapping at him, the singing was getting annoying, But, Smoker figured, since they only had about 7 more minutes in here, he could put up with it for a little longer.

But after 7 minutes, like clockwork, there was a knock on the door. Smoker glanced at the clock on the wall and felt relieved. His shift was over for now and that meant that he could relax for a while. The next guy in charge of organizing this room wouldn't be in for another half an hour though. "Come in!" Smoker told the peson outside the door. "Ok Monkey," Smoker said gruffly, turning his back on the door. "You can leave now." and no sooner had he said these words had Luffy let out a loud whoop and rushed to the door.

"Bye Bye Smokey!" Luffy called, but at that point, Smoker had begun blocking him out again. So he didn't hear Luffy address the man who had been waiting outside, nor did he hear the man come in. It was only when arms wrapped around his waist that Smoker looked behind him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Portgas?" Smoker growled, not pleased at all by the close contact. Ace just smirked at him.

"Shut up Smokey." Ace said before reaching down to grab Smoker's ass.

"Not in here Portgas." Smoker said gruffly, stubbornly turning his attention back to the bins. He bent down to pick one up. Big mistake. "Portgas!" Smoker shot up and almost roared when Ace's wandering hands suddenly gripped his hips and pulled them back into Ace's pelvis.

"Come. On. Smokey." Ace stressed, with a little bit of whine to his voice. "There aren't any cameras in here and the nect guy won't be here for a while. So let's get nasty." Ace smirked. Smoker, after internally debating the pros and cons of dealing with Portgas right now finally sighed.

"Fine but afterwards we go different ways and you don't go following me around. And I swear to god Portgas, if you don't stop looking at me like that then I will sock you."

* * *

Noon On the Hotel Rooftop

Whenever Usopp went to the roof of the building, it was always because he wanted to be alone. Even though he was terrified of heights, he liked to just sit far, far away from the edge and look out at the ocean.

Which was why he was shocked when Luffy came barreling out there just a few minutes after him. "Whoa!" Usopp shouted when Luffy hit the door hard enough for it to swing back and hit the wall. "How did you-"

"Lee told me." Luffy bluntly cut Usopp off. "She said that you go up here to mope and that you looked bad this time and that I should go up there too." Luffy said before jogging over to where Usopp was sitting and plopping down.

"She noticed huh?" Usopp sighed before giving a dry, humorless laugh. "Well, I shouldn't be surprised." he told Luffy. "She's kinda selective about what she notices." he remembered the time that she sent him off to help her with errands and then forgot all about having asked him. He had spent the whole day getting her things only to come back and see that she'd already gotten everything herself.

Luffy, surprised by Usopp's response, leaned over and poked Usopp in the face. "Hey, what's wrong with you?" he asked, making it clear with his poking that he wasn't going to stop until he got an answer. Usopp shrugged.

"Life. What else?" he said, his shoulders drooping as he spoke. Luffy was undeterred.

"Not good enough." he told Usopp. "What's wrong?" he demanded. And Usopp, wanting to confide in somebody (he just didn't have the heart to burden anything else onto Kaya and Sanji was out of the question), decided to tell him.

"I ran into this freaky girl the other day." he explained. "She was really streange looking. Bug eyes, pink hair, all of that." Usopp described her and a flash of understanding came into Luffy's eyes.

"Oh," he said, "I've seen her before."

:Really?" Usopp raised an eyebrow. "Small world then." he said before continuing. "Well basically she told be all of these shitty things and I kinda lost myself for a while." he paused before continuing. "I used to be really fat." he said bluntly, not looking at Luffy. "As in, 'bloated whale' fat." he continued. "And before that I used to be really scrawny. I was like a knobby bean pole. My father also abandoned me." Usopp began listing off things like a shopping list. "He died a few years ago, which basically caused me to go on my eating spree and get fat, and my mother got sick and died when I was really young." Usopp didn't mention that he'd also slept with his 'pretty sure that they were still friends, but not entirely sure' friend Sanji. And then flipped out on said friend earlier. He had to keep some things secret after all.

"And so all of my life I've grown up with these horrible self image problems. I feel so goddamn worthless sometimes," Usopp sighed. "But I guess someone as carefree as you wouldn't know what that felt like." Usopp said dryly. It was a bit of a low blow but usopp didn't particularly care. Luffy shrugged.

"Nope." he said before holding up some fingers of his own. "When I was 6, I met Shanks, the guys who runs this place, and a year later he saved me from drowning. Although a shark ended up eating his arm." Usopp jumped slightly at the thought. He had never asked Mr. Shanks about his missing arm before. And now he was glad that he hadn't. "After that I met my big brother Ace. But Ace totally hated me!" Luffy chuckled. "He even tried to kill me once. But we got along better after that."

Usopp wondered how much of _that_ story he wasn't hearing. "And my grandpa hits me a lot and he recently sent me off to a military school because he thought that I would otherwise grow up to be a criminal someday. I never knew my dad, mom, or grandma though." Luffy said before putting his hand down. "But I've never felt worthless. Maybe lonely, I guess." Luffy laughed louder this time. "Anyway, Ace always said that I was too stupid to be anything other than happy all of the time!"

Usopp drew his knees up until they touched his chest. "Well, you are an idiot like that." he said and Luffy elbowed him. "Hey! Stop that!" Usopp said before quickly scooting away from Luffy. "And what's with that strength?! You're like a monster!" he said jokingly. All of his anger and insecure feelings were still there of course, but Luffy's presencse seemed to be pushing them back. 'Huh', part of usopp thought. 'So this is what having an annoyingly cheerful friend was like'.

"Monster?" Luffy's ears seemed to perk up. The next thing he did took Usopp by surprise. All of a sudden, Luffy let out a loud _roar_ and charged Usopp. Freaked out, Usopp rolled to the side to avoid Luffy's tackle.

"Luffy!" he screeched when he got to his feet. "What the _hell_ are you doing?!" he shouted and Luffy grinned at him.

"Bein' a monster." Luffy said with a cheeky smile. "This is how Ace used to do it." he said before leaping towards Usopp again. His arms locked around Usopp's waist and he brought both of them down.

"Luffy! Stop! You're being weird now."

"Roar!"

"Stop- I mean it! Luf- _Bite me and I will PUNCH you!_"

* * *

So I guess it ends with Luffy being, well Luffy again. Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. Like I said before, I'm getting dumber as the school year approaches and I also had an anime con to attend last week and couldn't post it then. So i hope this chapter will do.

But I also have to express a fanfic pet peeve of mine right now. I'm finding when I read a lot of One Piece fanfics that I _really_ don't like it when people make Luffy snarky and sarcastic when he's anything but that. I mean, his idea of an insult is calling Zoro 'four swords' and Eneru 'earlobes'. he's not witty at all.

But my characterization needs work too so I'm re-reading the series now and I'm on the Arlong Park arc. And I'm re-learning how much I love early straw hat interaction. Like seriously, they're so cute at the beginning of the series.

Another note (feel free to ignore): is that I don't really like this story. Like I said, it's an idea that I came up with when i was like 11 (and I'm pretty sure I based it off of another hotel fic by a Zolu writer called 'Cupid' anyway which was really shitty on my part .) and I'm only finishing it so I can say that I finished my first multichapter. With that being said, I'm already drafting up my next Zolu fic.

It'll be a supernatural one so I just wanted to take a little poll and see what kind of mythical creature you'd like to see Luffy, Zoro, or any character as. But the only ones I won't write are werewolves and vampires, for pretty obvious reasons. Zombies, faries, or any more exotic creature suggestions would be great though.

With that being said, I'll see you all next week~


	12. A scar worth a thousand words

Thank you to everyone who reviewed in the last chapter! Unfortunately I don't really have time for acknowledgements (as weird as that sounds) because I have 3 papers I've put off writing, but still, thank you for all of your reviews. At some point either late tonight, or tomorrow when I finish my papers I'll answer all of your reviews (especially because there are quite a few good questions in there) but for now all I can say is thank you and I hope you enjoy this chapter more.

Warning: only language really

Also, I'm shifting my update days to Friday because when school starts, it'll just be easier to update then. So, without further ado~

* * *

2:15 pm At a small restaurant

Luffy had been having a good enough time over the last week that he'd almost forgotten why he was there in the first place. Or rather, who had sent him there. He had been sitting at a small diner with a few of the people he'd made friends with over the last few weeks when his phone started buzzing in his pocket. Luffy, after shoving even more food into his mouth (the other people at the table had learned to look away when he ate), pulled the device out of his pocket before glancing down at his screen. When he saw who was calling, he almost choked on his food. "Grah'ah!" he shouted in a muffled voice before swallowing all of his food in one gulp. His eyes began tearing up but Luffy was too busy staring at the phone like it was a ticking time bomb to notice. He glanced nervously at his friends, who by this point had noticed him acting strangely, before suddenly jumping up and running out of the restaurant.

"Wait Luffy-"

"Where are you-?"

Luffy ignored them and didn't stop until he'd reached a deserted stairwell. And by then, then phone had stopped ringing. Luffy looked at it like it was his very own death warrant (because it kinda, sorta was). He waited nervously until the phone started ringing again. His shoulder trembled as he accepted the call. "Grand-"

"Dammit Luffy!" Garp practically roared from the other end of the phone. Luffy dropped the phone and backed away (that god for the protective case Ace had made him get for the phone). Garp continued yelling. "I hear that you've been getting your ass into trouble you brat!" Garp shouted and Luffy could practically imagine his grandfather's rage filled face. "Getting into fights, skipping work, slacking off-" Garp listed and Luffy shrank away from his voice. "I should have dumped you into that military camp!" Garp growled. "And where the hell is Ace?"

Luffy quickly shook his head to indicate that he didn't know before remembering that Garp wouldn't be able to see. "I-I don't know grandpa." Luffy's voice shook. He couldn't make out what Garp muttered next but he got Garp's next message loud and clear.

"Don't make me come down there Luffy. Because if I have to go down there because you're acting up, then you won't like it." Garp threatened. His tone made it clear that he would travel to the Red Line Resort in a heartbeat. "If I can't turn you and your no good brother into good marines, then I'll at least turn you into good citizens. So no more slacking off, skipping work, or anymore of that shit." Garp said clearly and Luffy nodded his head fast enough to make his own bangs whip him in the face. "And when you see your brother, tell his lazy ass to call me." Garp said and then there was silence on the other end. Luffy slowly crept towards the phone and picked it up like he was still afraid that it would blow. A quick glance at the screen told him that Garp had hung up. Luffy sighed in relief before tucking the phone back into his pants.

Although he wasn't focusing on it, he knew that his grandfather meant what he'd said. And so that little part in his head that had dedicated itself to keeping Luffy out of trouble took note. Keep your ass in line, or else _Garp_.

Luffy shivered again.

* * *

2:30 In the gyms

"Fight me!" Tashigi ordered, one hand already on the hilt of her sword. Zoro cracked his eye open to glare up at her, but didn't move. He was in the middle of meditating, and Tashigi knew this. But she was still challenging him. He closed his eye again to show that he wasn't listening, but what Tashigi said next took him by surprise. "I'm not fighting you for Wado anymore." she clarified. Zoro opened his eye again and saw that there was a faint blush on Tashigi's cheeks. "Just humor me for a few rounds. I would like to test something."

Zoro stared at her for a few more seconds before sighing. "Fine." the sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could get back to medictating. He followed her to one of the unused sports rooms ("Not over there Zoro!" Tashigi said quickly. "I thought I told you to follow _me_.") He closed the door behind himself and took his swords out of their case. Tashigi had already unsheathed her sword and had eased herself into a fighting stance. It was different from her usual stance in that she wasn't placing too much weight onto her leading foot. Instead she was balancing her weight more evenly. A definite improvement.

Slightly intrigued, Zoro unsheathed his own swords and took up his own stance. There was a tense silence for a few seconds, and then it was as if someone had rang a bell. Tashigi and Zoro leapt towards each other at the same time and there was a sharp ringing noise as their swords clashed.

When it came to fighting, Tashigi had always been weighted down by her emotions. She allowed opponents to get to her and it made her form sloppier. It was especially prevalent in her fights with Zoro. He had always thought about telling her about it, but never had told her because of the animosity she'd held towards him. After a while, he had just begun doubting that she'd even take his advice seriously. So instead he would just fight her, and little by little, Tashigi would improve on her own. But now she was completely different. Their swords clashed again as Tashigi and Zoro continued their dangerous dance. Instead of letting her emotions power her blows, she was now relying on speed. While Zoro's strikes were more powerful, she was able to score more hits. And after a few rounds, they stopped. Both of them were breathing heavily.

Then Tashigi smiled at her sword and sheathed it. "I guess it is easier to fight when you're not holding grudges." she said before looking up at Zoro. She straightened her glasses before suddenly bowing at the waist. "I'm sorry." she said, staring straight at the ground. And Zoro, who was surprised at the whole display, found that he had no idea what was even going on. "I apologize for the way I've treated you for the past 12 years." Tashigi continued with her head still bowed. "I was foolish for blaming you for my sister's-"

"What the hell are you going on about?" Zoro cut in, glaring at her (although it was more because a glare was his default expression). "And what does that have to do with our fight?"

Tashigi bristled slightly. She glared up at Zoro. "Well, if you'll let me explain-"

"Explain what?" Zoro narrowed his eye. "Right now you're just bowing at me and being weird." Tashigi straightened up.

"I'm not being weird!" she snapped. "I'm trying to apologize!"

"You don't have to, so stop!"

"What do you mean 'stop'? I'm trying to be nice!"

"Well it's not working so stop!" At this point, Tashigi and Zoro were in each other's faces and glaring at each other. "There's nothing to apologize for so just stop!" Zoro said again and, Tashigi realized, that was that. There was no need to apologize or say anything else.

Tashigi stormed away to get some bandages and when she came back, she began wrapping Zoro's wounds. Most of them were superficial, but there was the occasional big cut. And while she worked, the two stayed in a semi-awkward silence. "There." she snapped when she had finished. Zoro grunted, which Tashigi took for a 'thank you' and she headed for the door.

They wouldn't ever be particularly close, but at maybe they wouldn't be as bad as before.

* * *

4:20pm In Zoro and Sanji's room

"Hey Zoro, how'd those happen?" Luffy looked away from his view out the window to gesture to the bandages on Zoro's arms.

"Swordfight." Zoro said. Luffy's eyes immediately lit up.

"Cool!" he gushed, "With who? Where? Why didn't you get me-" Luffy continued to babble and Zoro waited until he winded down a little before answering.

"It wasn't anything big." he said smoothly. "My cousin just challenged me. She got… better." he finished after trailing off. Better was certainly as word for her strange behavior. "What about you? What did you do today?" Zoro asked, mostly to divert Luffy's attention away from him and his family. He was also partially curious because Luffy had a talent for getting into strange situations.

Luffy took the bait and quickly started up again. But because he was talking a mile a minute, Zoro didn't catch much besides the word 'grandpa' thrown around a few times. After a while, Zoro decided that he'd had enough 'Luffy-speak' tried to shut Luffy up by turning on the TV. Luckily, there was an action flick about cars on.

The movie was cheesy and full of bad dialogue and explosions. And Luffy loved it.

"Oh Look Zoro!" Luffy shouted before bounding from his place next to the window so that he was on Zoro's bed. "I love this movie!" Luffy practically shouted in Zoro's ear. And while Zoro rolled his eyes, and pushed Luffy's face away, he wasn't really annoyed.

"Just sit down idiot." Zoro said before winding an arm around Luffy's waist and pulling Luffy down so that he was halfway lying against Zoro's side. Contrary to what his skinny appearance would suggest, Luffy wasn't too bony. It may have been because his skin had an oddly elastic quality to it, but Luffy felt softer that Zoro had expected him to. But Zoro could still feel the muscles lining Luffy's deceptively small frame. The kid was a powerhouse. No doubt about it.

And as they were watching the movie, Luffy's hand slipped into Zoro's and their fingers intertwined. Luffy's hands and feet were really the only callused parts of him. While the only scars he seemed to have seemed to be the one on his chest and the one under his eye. And just like the scars on his own body, which came mostly from sword fighting and heavy lifting, the calluses on Luffy's told dozens of stories.

And the urge to trace the calluses on Luffy's hands became so strong at one point during the movie that Zoro just threw caution to the wind and picked up Luffy's hand. Luffy was still totally enthralled by the movie, but he did make a small, annoyed noise when Zoro began running his fingers over his palms.

The calluses on his palms weren't from weight training, or anything Zoro was used to. But Zoro remembered what Luffy had told him about climbing trees in his youth and continued. He traced the lines across Luffy's palms and Luffy squirmed a little next to him. He turned his hand over and examined Luffy's scarred knuckles. They told a much clearer story than Luffy's palm had. From reading them, Zoro had a much better idea of just how many hundreds of fights the boy must have been involved in when he was younger. Zoro slowly ran his thumb across the backs on Luffy's knuckles and Luffy finally seemed to realize that Zoro was messing with his hand. But instead of raising a fuss, Luffy just watched Zoro with wide eyes.

Zoro observed Luffy's nails and wasn't surprised to see that Luffy's nails were short and slightly ragged. A nail biter. It figured. Although Luffy probably did it out of boredom more than nerves. When Zoro finally noticed Luffy watching him, all he could think to do was to bring Luffy's hand up to his mouth and run his lips over his knuckles. His eyes remained locked on Luffy's the entire time. And even though his cheeks had gained a little color, Luffy kept his gaze locked on Zoro. And it was a bit unnerving being observed like he was, but Zoro didn't want to drop his gaze. Instead he asked a question that had popped into his head a few days ago.

"Who taught you how to fight?" he asked, rubbing his thumb over Luffy's knuckles again.

"Hmm?" Luffy asked. He blinked a few times before answering. "Ace, of course." And Zoro nodded. He had figured. "Also my grandpa." Luffy added as an extra thought.

"Hmm." Zoro made a small noise before clasping Luffy's other hand and intertwining their fingers. He pressed his worn and scarred palms against Luffy's and leaned in until his nose was almost touching Luffy's. Normally Luffy was so hyper and bouncy, so it was strange to see him just sitting so still.

"What are you doing Zoro?" Luffy asked. And Zoro shrugged.

"It's a mystery." he said as he continued to examine Luffy's face. While Luffy's eyes looked black from a distance, they were actually dark grey, and Zoro could pick out a few flecks of brown in them. And while Luffy's wide eyes could have been considered feminine, his eyelashes were short and without any hint of a curve, and his eyebrows were thin and slanted. His ears were bigger than Zoro's and they stuck out slightly, like a monkey's. Even now, Luffy didn't look like much of a champion fighter, despite what his body or fight record said otherwise. At age 19, Luffy still seemed to be stuck somewhere between at awkward baby fat preteen phrase, and 'growing into your own body' adult phase. Zoro could tell that in the future, Luffy would be the guy who aged slowly and would always be asked for an ID to get into bars.

"Oh, ok then." Luffy said as he began his own examination. Since Zoro was so close, Luffy took in his face first.

Zoro had a mean face. His eyes were small and not very inviting, while his cheeks, nose, and chin were sharp and angular like an older adult's. Besides the scar over his eye, Zoro also had other, smaller scars running along his face. Luffy immediately began wondering what they felt like. But Zoro still had his hands. So, instead, Luffy leaned forward and brushed his cheek against Zoro's. His nose touched Zoro's ear and Luffy was able so smell Zoro's hair (it smelt like that plain white soap they used at school). Luffy nuzzled his cheek against Zoro's and was surprised when Zoro turned his head slightly and nipped him on the ear.

"Hey-" Luffy drew a short distance away. The last time someone had bitten him there had been when he was 13, when Ace and him had gotten into a fight. What Zoro did obviously felt a lot better than that, but it had still taken Luffy completely by surprise. "What was that for?" And Zoro shrugged.

"It's a mystery." he said again and Luffy couldn't help but smile. He knew that he wasn't very smart, and so he tended to label things he didn't understand as mysteries. Ace always made fun of him for it but it was different when Zoro did it. Or, at least, Zoro didn't seem to be making fun of him.

Luffy chuckled. "Ok then." he said before trying to tug his hands out of Zoro's grip. Zoro didn't relent until Luffy started whining. "Zoro~ Let go~." Luffy whined and Zoro quickly did so, figuring that a whiny Luffy would be much less fun to deal with. Luffy brought his hands up so that he could trace some of the scars on Zoro's face, but leaning forward put him at an awkward angle, so he wiggled a little so that he wasn't so close to Zoro's side. He opted, instead, to move until he was straddling Zoro. In the background, the movie was still playing, but neither Zoro nor Luffy were paying any attention to it. Instead Zoro scooted forward a little so that he would be able to lean back against the headboard and give Luffy more room to do whatever he was doing.

Luffy sat with his butt against Zoro's legs and his thighs on either side of his chest. He could just barely see some more bandages peeking out from around the collar of Zoro's shirt and he absentmindedly reached down and traced over them with his thumb. "You got these today?" Luffy asked. He pulled Zoro's collar down a little to see just how far down the bandages went. Whoever had wrapped them had done a good job.

"Yeah." Zoro said before scratching his head. "Like I said, with my cousin. She's somewhere in the top 15 when it comes to young swordsmen." Luffy nodded before leaning farther over Zoro. And all of sudden, their 'exploration' period turned into a Q an A.

"How'd you get this one?" Luffy poked a scar a little further down on Zoro's chest. He purposely avoided the large jagged scar running across his chest.

"My other cousin gave that one to me." Zoro answered.

"And this one?"

"Tournament a few years ago. The guys was a few years older than me and a little faster too." The answer for some of the scars would be longer than others, and some were more meaningful than others. And occasionally Zoro would ask Luffy a question or two. "How did you get that scar under your eye?" Zoro asked and Luffy smiled.

"Well I wanted to show Shanks, the guy who runs this place, that I was brave so I just stabbed myself under my eye. It was a pretty dumb thing to do." And then Luffy laughed as if it were nothing. As if people stabbed themselves everyday.

At some point, Luffy had has arm so far down Zoro's shirt that Zoro had just opted to take his shirt off instead. It left him feeling a little more vulnerable, but vulnerability didn't feel like so much of a problem right now. The last scar Luffy asked about what the one that ran diagonally across his chest.

"And this one?" Luffy finally asked, running his fingers up and down the neat stitches. And Zoro closed his eye and breathed in and out for about half a minute before explaining.

"My uncle gave that one to me about two years ago. He also gave me the scar on my eye." Zoro explained. "My uncle Mihawk is the best swordsman in the world, and I was foolish enough to believe that I could beat him with my own mediocre skills." Zoro chuckled and ran a hand down over his face. "I was completely and utterly defeated. For most of the fight, my uncle insisted on using the smallest blade in his collection as well. It wasn't until his final blow that he used his famed black blade. And so he gave me this," he placed his hand over Luffy's. "as a reminder of how foolish I was." Zoro looked up and placed his palm on Luffy's chest. "But what about you? That's a nasty burn you have there."

And even though he couldn't see it at the moment, Zoro could still imagine it. That x-shaped scar dead center on Luffy's chest. 'X marks the spot' Zoro quoted in his head. The ridges of the scar and it's faded color told Zoro that it was at least a year old. But at the mention of his scar, Luffy paused before taking his hands off of Zoro's chest. Then in one swift moment, he grabbed the hem of his work shirt and yanked it up and over his head.

"It's from a gas explosion." Luffy said, staring down at the scar. "Two years ago, my brother Ace was working with his boss' construction company on a site when a guy who had gotten fired the day before came back and set off a small explosion." Luffy's eyes misted over a little as he remembered. "Ace and his boss, Whitebeard, almost died." Luffy recalled. "Ace was actually dead for a little while." he said bluntly. "A piece of shrapnel had blown through his chest. Whitebeard got half of his face taken off and a hole through his chest too." Luffy blinked before picking at his scar. "I wasn't too close to the explosion but I still got hit pretty badly. But luckily, there was a group of famous doctors visiting the hospital we were taken to. One of them was that Kureha woman."

Zoro nodded as he recognized the name. She'd patched him up a few times in the past. She, with her small assistant Chopper, was known as one of the best doctors in the world. "Well, they worked for a long time but they were finally able to save Whitebeard and Ace. I ended up almost losing my brother that night." Luffy's voice wavered a little at the end and he began sniffling a little.

And Zoro, recognizing this, quickly reached up and grabbed the back of Luffy's neck and pulled him down so that Luffy's head was tucked under his chin. It was more physical comfort that he was used to giving, but Luffy looked like he really needed it. A few seconds later, Luffy's shoulder began shaking and Zoro felt the tears against his chest.

And he understood. The fear that came from almost losing a family member. He knew that it didn't fully compare to actually losing a loved one, but it was terrifying all the same. Between the powerlessness and the suffocating fear that came from realizing that someone who had been with you for years, just might not be there anymore. He had felt it when his father had died, and he'd felt it when Kuina had fallen down the stairs. And in that space of time, it had felt like nothing else in the world mattered. Like nobody else's problems, woes, anything, could match up to what you were feeling.

So he let Luffy just lay there and cry out any dredged up or repressed feelings. And in the meantime, he just ran his hand up and down Luffy's back. It was about as comforting as he got. Suddenly, Luffy drew back again, and even though his eyes were slightly red and lined with tears, he was smiling.

"Heh," he laughed, and Zoro raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Zoro looks scary, but he's really a nice guy!" Luffy laughed and Zoro sighed.

"Yeah, yeah." he said. He pulled Luffy down. Because Luffy just wouldn't stop smiling, their kiss ended up being sloppy and wet, and by the end of it, both of their cheeks were red and Luffy's tears were on Zoro's face.

Luffy drew away again before glancing down at Zoro. By this point, Zoro's erection was poking him in the stomach. "Ya' need help with that?" Luffy asked bluntly while Zoro just shrugged. While he'd gotten a hard on, Luffy was still sitting there looking ruffled but not necessarily aroused.

"Only if you want to." and it was the truth. He was perfectly ok with just lying there and ignoring it. The erection was annoying, but he'd been through worse. But Luffy just moved so that he was no longer straddling Zoro. Instead he moved down and pushed Zoro's knees apart before placing his hands on the inside of Zoro's thighs. "And you're sure about this?" Zoro asked as Luffy went about removing Zoro's pants.

"Yep." Luffy said cheerfully as he started working on Zoro's boxers. "I've watched a lot of Ace's videos. I know how to do this!" there was silence for a few seconds before,

"Luffy, please don't ever tell me about your brother's pornos. Ever again."

* * *

This chapter has been brought to you by the 'don't ever procrastinate on your summer school work because writing 2 essays and a journal in 3 days sucks' organization.

Anyway, even though I'd planned not to do this at the beginning, I really need to get a move on with the plot, so from here on out it will focus mainly on Zoro and Luffy. Unfortunately I'll have to cut down on the subplots and such but I need to make this story move just a little faster. So, instead I'll just write one or two shots for anything I can't fit into the main storyline and just link them to this story. That way I'll stop forcing my beta pairings onto others (hehe *not really sorry*)


	13. The Ghostly Princess and Cheshire Cat

So here's the 13th chapter. Definitely farther than I got with the last story~ And this one should go up to maybe 20? 25? Anyway, please enjoy the chapter!

Warnings for some language and some misspelled words and bad grammar here and there. Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed~. I won't be able to respond to any of them over the 3 day break (ugh, I feel like a bad person for not thanking people more) but any reviews you feel like throwing my way and greatly appreciated.

Once again, Enjoy

Edit: Woah! When did get a spellcheck?! Granted it's pretty bad but it's still cool~

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8:00 am In Katherine and Perona's room.

Kuina frowned at the bathroom mirror and pulled at her ugly bridesmaid dress. The dresses were a pastel yellow ('It looks like wall plaster' she said in her head) and they didn't have straps. Instead the material was bunched up around Kuina's chest and a large white fabric rose was over her left breast. The dress only went down to her calves but the white sash, that she had yet to knot around her waist, trailed on the ground slightly. Of course it would be better when she put on her heels, but for now, the thing looked like the ugly kind of dress a little girl would wear to Sunday school.

Which was intentional of course. There had always been a trend of meaner brides picking the ugliest dresses possible for their bridesmaids in an attempt to remain the center of attention. But of course Katherine was a jealous or mean bride. Just a bitch.

With the way her family bowed down to her, she could have gotten away with making all of the other girls wear potato sacks. The only thing that seemed to stop her was Kuina's aunt finally putting her foot down. But Katherine hadn't been deterred much. Instead of sacks, she'd gone for the ugly rags they had now, plus an 80's beehive hairdo and gaudy jewelry for the bridesmaids. Kuina, who was situated in the bathroom, heard something that sounded like a strangled cat come from outside in the living room. The noise was quickly followed by Aunt Jackie admonishing Perona and Perona making some spiteful comments of her own.

Kuina huffed again. Her only solstice was that she didn't have to suffer through this alone. While Katherine's wedding party was made up of mostly her friends, Kuina, Tashigi, and Perona had been forced to participate as a show of kindness towards their new 'cousin' (the very thought sent a shiver up her spine). But of course, none of them had gone willingly. Tashigi had tried pleading with their father for weeks while she, personally, had tried to make Katherine mad enough to kick her out of the bridesmaid party herself (only her attempts seemed to backfire and amuse Katherine instead). Perona had kicked up the biggest fuss, mainly because nothing about the outfit matched her hair color or her usual style. But all it had taken to break her down in the end was a few words from her father, and Kuina's uncle.

"Zoro owes me so much for this." she muttered at her reflection, already thinking of things to make her cousin pay her back for this hell. Whether he'd actually do any of them or not was a totally different story. "-making me dress up for some bitch I don't even like." she snarled as she poked at her ridiculous looking hair. But speaking of Zoro, she'd only seen him a few times around meal times over the last few days. And while not speaking to her cousin for days at a time wasn't new to her, not actually seeing him was. It made her wonder where he went all day.

There was a sudden knock at the bathroom door and Jackie's voice echoed through the wood. "Hurry up and come out." she said in her business voice. "Kate wants to see you." As it was, Jackie was the only one allowed to refer to Katherine as Kate (although no one that she knew really wanted to). Not even her foster-mother called her that. Kuina, in a moment of great maturity, stuck her tongue out at the door before sighing.

"I'll be right out." she said before pulling her dress up slightly so that it wouldn't fall down. She glared at her reflection one more time before leaving the bathroom. But she stopped just a few feet outside the door when she realized what Katherine was holding in her hands. 'That much have been what Perona was complaining about earlier,' a quiet voice said in the back of her head. The bridesmaid bouquet that Katherine was holding was a terrifyingly ugly mixture of pastel colored flowers. None of which went with the dress.

And the glee in Katherine's eyes was enough to make Kuina want to smack her.

* * *

9: 43am In Shanks' Office

"'O 'Uffy," Ace said around a mouthful of Chinese food Shanks had gotten a few floors down. "'Er 'ave 'u 'een 'ately?" Ace swallowed the food with a loud gulp and jabbed his chopsticks at Luffy. "You were gone for hours yesterday and you've been coming back to the room late at night recently." While he was used to Luffy being gone all day when they were kids (and by being gone he meant getting lost in the forest), Luffy usually called at some point. He was also happier than normal, which for Luffy, was really saying something. From across his desk, Shanks looked up at the two. While both Ace and Luffy were still sore at Shanks for him selling them out to Garp (Ace had called his grandfather last night and the ensued yelling session had lasted for hours), Shanks' buying them food had slowly but surely begun making up for it.

"What do you mean 'late' Ace?" Shanks asked, narrowing his eyes at Luffy like the concerned parent he tried to be sometimes. "How late are you staying out?" And Luffy, who had been caught off guard by both of their questions (because _food) _blinked in surprise when he noticed them staring at him. He made a vague noise around all of the food in his mouth that Ace and Shanks, after years of knowing him, were able to translate as 'What? What are you guys talking about?'

"I'm asking you where you spend all of your time Luffy." Ace said again, although he sounded more demanding than he had a moment ago. Luffy, radiating the kind of stupid energy that he normally did, just cocked his head to the side and stared at Ace.

"With my friends of course." Luffy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which was true. He was usually hanging out with Usopp or Lee or Randy or…, Luffy continued to tick off names in his head (and for the names he forgot he submitted nicknames instead), and then Zoro of course. Although Zoro was more like a best, best friend; more than a normal friend like Usopp. Speaking of Usopp, Luffy made a mental note to find him later, but forgot it almost immediately. "Besides," Luffy added in an offhand manner. "Ace spends all his time with Smokey anyway. I can't even find you half the time." Luffy didn't exactly pout but his did stick his cheeks out in an angry chipmunk manner.

Shanks immediately turned on Ace. "You what?" he asked disbelievingly. "I thought that you were staying away from him." Now Shanks was using his disbelieving 'I thought we had this conversation mister' tone. And Ace, riled by Shanks' tone, let a little sarcasm color his voice.

"Actually the opposite. Me and Smokey and closer than ever." He held up his hand and curled his middle finger and around his pointer. "Like two peas in a pod. Or a queen sized bed." Ace amended with an easy roll of his shoulders. And Shanks' face turned the shade of red that only came from learning about your sexually active child. He opened his mouth and sputtered a few times before finally closing his mouth. He immediately reverted back to 'cool uncle' Shanks and proceeded to delete his newfound information from his brain. "As long as there are no lawsuits by the end of It." was all Shanks said before continuing to eat his food with a pink face. And Ace, distracted by his small victory, forgot the line of questions he had had for Luffy. And Luffy, having unwittingly dodged a bullet, continued to pig out.

Until Shanks reached over and skillfully plucked out a piece of meat from Luffy's tray. Luffy's reaction was immediate. "Shanks!" he cried out. "Bastard! Give it back!" And Shanks sagely popped the meat in his mouth before muttering,

"tsk, tsk. Language Anchor." Luffy retaliated by reaching over and stabbing at a shrimp that Shanks had missed with his food. He quickly ate it before sticking his tongue out at Shanks. And Ace, correctly predicting where their stupid little fight would take them, got up from his seat and stood against he wall with his tray in hand. A few seconds later, Luffy and Shanks were going at it like idiots; each trying to steal from the other's plate.

"Morons." Ace muttered under his breath as he watched them.

* * *

10:02 am Seriously, This Place Has Too Many Floor (featuring Sanji)

By this point, Sanji was at his wit's end. Surprisingly- or you know what? It wasn't surprising at all. He was quickly relearning just how good Usopp was at avoiding people. He had yet to even see him after their argument a few days prior. The few times he'd caught sight of Usopp, the teen had just scurried off or lost himself in the crowd. And although he had a vague idea of why Usopp was avoiding him (emphasis on vague), he still had no idea how to bring it up. But in order to do that, or even _talk_ to him, Sanji had to _find_ him first. So he had finally enlisted Jessica's help ("Oh, so you're the reason Long Nose hasn't been in here lately." She had said dryly. "Figures.") and Jessica had led him to one of Usopp's bosses, an older woman named Lee Ann.

"Usopp should be coming here around now," Lee Ann told Sanji before glancing at the crowd again. Just a few minutes earlier, she had radioed in a small leak on the floor and requested that they send Usopp to fix it. And Sanji, with that plan set in motion, felt a lot like one of the hunters in old cartoons; ya know, the ones that used a cardboard box propped up with a stick tied to a string to catch their prey. But, unlike in the cartoons, it actually worked this time.

"Lee," They both heard Usopp before they saw him. "Why did you request me? I was on bre-" Usopp stopped suddenly when he saw Sanji standing with Lee, his arms folded over his chest. Immediately Usopp spun around and tried walking off, babbling about being late for something or another. But Sanji reacted quickly and grabbed Usopp's upper arm. He ignored all of the excuses and when Usopp tried saying that Sanji was holding his arm too tightly (which was a damn lie) Sanji snapped at him.

"Too damn bad. We need to talk." Sanji told him bluntly and Usopp wilted slightly. Usopp turned his head and glared at Lee and Sanji pulled him away from the crowds. She watched him go with a slightly bemused expression. And then she turned and disappeared into the crowd herself.

Finally Usopp and Sanji reached a semi secluded space and Sanji let go, but he stood between Usopp and the hallway to make sure he didn't try to run. He folded his arms over his chest. "Explain. Now." he ground out from around his cigarette. But Usopp kept his eyes on the ground. And after a few more tense seconds, Sanji brought his hands up and rubbed his face. "Fine," he sighed. "Sit." he gestured to the ground and when Usopp reluctantly sat down, he followed suit. And so they ended up against the wall with their shoulders touching. And Usopp, who had been trying to avoid Sanji, had to resist the urge to lean against his shoulder. Instead he clenched his fists. And Sanji took note of the gesture.

"What?" he asked, blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Are you going to hit me?" And Usopp, taken back by the question asked,

"What? Why would I-" he quickly clamped a hand over his mouth when he realized he had been doing what he'd tried to avoid for the last few days. And the gesture was so ridiculous that Sanji began chuckling.

"You know you look like an idiot when you do that right?" Sanji asked and Usopp sighed and took his hand off of his mouth.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "I figured." he glanced almost shyly at Sanji. "But-" he searched for words. "Why would I want to hit you…? I actually thought that it was the other way around." And this time Sanji looked surprised.

"Eh? What the hell do you mean by that?" he asked, raising his curled eyebrow.

"Well," and after stuttering a little bit, "After what I said, I thought you would be angrier. A lot angrier." he said quietly.

"Of I am angry." Sanji easily confirmed Usopp's fears. "But I'm more confused than angry." Sanji said smoothly. "Something like your friend flipping his shit for apparently no reason does that to you." And again, Sanji didn't sound too angry.

"Ehehe, no reason, huh?" Usopp scratched at his cheek. "I-I'm really sorry about that Sanji." he said quickly. "I just-I had just run into some really weird chick and she had apparently dug up a lot of shit on my past and gave me hell for it. It was so random and out of no where that I just ended up blowing my lid at you." he bowed his head quickly. "Soi'mreallysorryIsaidallofthatto you." His apology came out in a rush.

And Sanji, slightly intrigued, but still kind of confused just nodded before taking another drag. "What do you mean 'random girl'?" he asked, skipping over the apology in general. He didn't feel like he really needed one. He already had a pretty good idea what kind of things Usopp was talking about when he mentioned his past. The 'faggot' comment was still pretty left field though (the fact that Sanji's own tendencies, including that one time with Usopp, tended to go from totally straight to vaguely interested in men didn't really occur to Sanji as a good enough reason).

"Oh, I don't even know." Usopp buried his face in his hands. "Some weird pink Lolita girl."

"Lolita?" Sanji asked as something vague clicked in his head. And by vague, he meant really shitty. "Pink ponytails?" Usopp shook his head.

"Not ponytails. But pink curly hair. And really buggy eyes. Why?" Usopp started slightly when he saw the look on Sanji's face. It was controlled for the most part, but he could still see the subtle hints of disbelief and anger brewing there.

"There is no way." he muttered, wondering if it was a small world after all. He suddenly stood up. "I need to go Usopp." he said with a sharp edge to his voice. "And speak to that green haired idiot about his family." Sanji held out his hand and, after a slight hesitation, Usopp grabbed Sanji's hand and let himself be pulled up.

"What-" he tried to ask but Sanji was already walking off. He got a few feet away before suddenly turning and spinning around.

"And Usopp, I don't care about anything you told me that other day, but if you ever start avoiding me like that again then I'm kicking your ass." Sanji promised with a smirk before stalking off. And Usopp immediately felt his throat dry and his heart thump painfully.

"Dammit." Usopp muttered to himself as his crush walked off. But he couldn't help but be relieved anyway that Sanji wasn't mad at him. Now all he had to do was not do anything to mess up it up.

* * *

9:50 am Zoro and Sanji's Room

Zoro was on his bed flipping through one of his books on blade polishing when he heard a knock on his door. He glared at the door as if willing the person behind it to go away, but when they knocked again; he sighed and put his book down. "Stop." he called out when the knocking persisted. "I'm coming." When he reached the door, he opened it without looking through the peephole. He was greeted by the sight of Katherine standing there, looking like Christmas had come early.

"Wow Zoro," she immediately cooed in that fake high pitched voice of hers. "You really picked a good one. That Luffy guy's pretty cute."

* * *

Ok, So I don't want to say much here (because I'm trying to stop doing so many embarrassingly long Ans) but forget what I said about writing one shots for the other subplots in this story. I'll just settle them in here (they won't be al elaborate but they'll make the whole this more consistent.

But seriously, I know bad characterization drives me crazy so if you ever have a problem with the way I write characters then please tell me. The last thing I want to do is talk about how OOC characters are a pet peeve of mine then do it myself. With Ace, for example, I'm trying to combine the polite Ace (which we saw in Alabasta) with the ruder/more informal Ace (mainly being from Luffy and Ace's past and how Ace acted around his whitebeard nakama). So I'm getting a polite around other, but kinda rude to people he knows better, Ace. So if any of that seems really off then please tell me so that I can fix it for my next story.

And speaking of next story, I'm already working on something new for Zoro and Luffy (although I won't put this off), and I'll probably end up posting it in the new two weeks. I can only hope that you guys will like my next project as much as this one. So thank you again.

((Final Note: wow, I first wrote this story in the 8th/ early 9th grade and I'm a senior in high school now. It's crazy how time flies. I can only hope my writing in either this story or the next will reflect time change.))


	14. Why We Can't Just Talk This Out

Warnings: oh, some of you might get mad at me for this chapter, but other than that, there's just the standard bad language warning.

A special thanks to **Kyouko68**, **Azab**, **Mad hatter Usagi**, **Kat-and-Midnight**, **Xxshadows99xX**, and **Azy0020** for reviewing~ All of your reviews mean a lot to me.

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Ooh, the look on Zoro's face was simply _delicious_. After all, it wasn't every day that you caught someone like Zoro off guard with a comment or two. Usually the guy looked like a stone wall. Occasionally you would be a be to get a grunt or two out of him. The only time his expression really changed was when he was having a stupid sword fight. Then he just looked demonic. Which, Katherine had to admit, was hot, but it also bored her to tears. But now his eyes were wider than normal, he was a little paler, and he was about a hop and skip away from going slack-jawed. It was fantastic. And while she would have loved to say that she had done something dramatic and romantic, in reality she had used some pretty boring methods.

She couldn't tail him like she wanted to. He was much too sharp for that and besides, it would have gotten boring fast. Checking for phone numbers or text messages would have been fun too, but she knew for a fact that Zoro didn't actual use his phone. God knows where he had it last. So instead she had been left to go to the security office. Because this hotel, like everything else in the 20th century, was filled to the brim with cameras. They were everywhere. In the hallways, restaurants, stores, ect. So she had basically used her future mother in law's name to get into the video room and she had had the idiot behind the desk searching the tapes for her fiance.

And, he had been surprisingly hard to find at first since she had had only a general idea of where the he spent most of his time. But with a little financial persuasion, she had convinced him to perform magic and find him. And while he had normally been a lone in the gym, she had caught a few shots of him with a black haired boy, who was, true to her word, cute in an unconventional way. The worker had then gotten his name off of his name tag and a quick call to the front desk had matched up the last name 'Monkey' with a certain employee. Monkey D. Luffy, to be exact. And from then on, all she had to do was confront Zoro.

But unlike other women who might have been hysterical at the idea of their man cheating on them, Katherine hadn't cared either way. As far as she was concerned, Zoro could do whatever he wanted so long as it didn't get in the way of her fun. The fact that he might also have a tendency towards men didn't particularly surprise her either. Sure they had had sex multiple times since getting engaged, but she never would have labeled Zoro as 'straight'. Celibate maybe, but not overly sexual. And while she was many things, homophobic was not one of them. In fact, why bother trashing a person's sexuality when you could just trash their self esteem?

Zoro meanwhile wore the same expression that he'd had when he was seven and Kuina had kicked him in the groin during an argument. There was no pain this time, but the shock and slight disbelief was still there. Reflecting on it, he had never really thought about his relationship with Luffy. It wasn't a sexual thing as much as a 'hey this guys is my friend and we occasionally make out thing'. If he was someone like Sanji, then he might have jumped to the conclusion that it was love. But since this was Zoro, the thought of it never crossed his mind. And he had certainly never thought about a future for said relationship. He had know the guy for less than a month after all! While he didn't particularly like the thought of just leaving here and never seeing Luffy again, he wasn't about to do anything drastic.

He had also told himself that it wouldn't matter if katherine knew. He knew that she wouldn't care, but he also knew that she liked to make trouble. And the fact that she might creat trouble for Luffy had never occurred to him.

So, he quickly grabbed her arm and dragged her into his room, intent on doing _something_ about the situation. Once inside, he let go of her and katherine continued to watch him for his reactions. By this poin the had gained his composure back and he sure as hell wouldn't lose it again. Her remark just now had been a lucky shot.

'But any enemy only needs one lucky shot, Zoro', the mental voice of Zoro's uncle Mihawk chided him and Zoro had to stop himself from snarling. Very not helpful.

So, instead of asking a question she would expect, or trying to deny it, Zoro took another route. "I wasn't aware that you would care about this sort of thing." he said bluntly, not willing to specify on 'this sort of thing'. But Katherine, if his statement had surprised her at all, didn't seem fazed.

"Normally I wouldn't," she smiled before placing her hand on his chest. "But I was just so _interested_," she rolled the word around in her mouth. "In what type of person would catch your eye." she moved her hand up and flicked at his nose. The stress on the word eye had just been a dirty jab on her part. But Zoro remained undeterred.

"You're not interested, just nosy." he told her and she smile faltered slightly. She didn't like words like 'nosy'. She felt like they were 'below her'.

"Well," she said in a smaller, more child like voice, maybe I am just nosy. So I looked a little into your boy toy's background," Zoro's jaw clenched slightly when she said this. Seriously, google searching somebody? This was bad. "And it turns out that his grandpappy is a. Big. Bad. Maine." She smiled again, although it was much more ruthless. She placed her hands on his chest again and got on her tip toes. "And last time I checked, Marines weren't very _accepting of his kind._" She leaned closer until their lips were almost touching an whispered the last part. And Zoro, although he wanted to move backwards, stayed where he was. He knew that like any other type of bully, if he didn't respond then she would get bored at some point. "It would be such a _shame_ if he knew." She giggled and Zoro immediately forgot what he just told himself. He grabbed her arms and immediately put distance between them.

"Stop. Stop your shit right now." He told her from between clenched teeth. For a few seconds he could see the fear in her eyes before it turned to excitement. "You are too damn old to be fucking with people like this." An unfortunately Zoro would only later realize that this was the type of reaction that she had been looking for.

"And if I don't?" she asked, goading him on. Lost in his anger at her immaturity, Zoro immediately fell for it.

"This engagement this thing is off. All of it." And as soon as he said it, Zoro realized how much he meant it. Every single word. There could be something said for wanting to help self destructive people, but the reality was much harsher. Because sometimes there were people who didn't want to change and people who you couldn't change.

And as soon as he said it, Zoro knew that he had crossed a line in their very one sided, parasitic relationship. Katherine's eyes narrowed and the smile fell from her face. She backed out of his grip with a suddenness that caught Zoro by surprise. She tipped her head to the side as if she were listening to something. Then she smiled a horribly cruel smile. "Oh, I'll do it Zoro." she promised. "I'll do much, much worse." And for a few seconds there was a tense few moments where no one moved. And then it was as if a gun had gone off. Katherine immediately bolted towards the door and Zoro just barely caught her by the waist. He tried to pull her in, only for her to throw her elbow back and hit him in the nose. While she wasn't a professional fighter, she could certainly hold her own. But when Zoro tried getting her under control, he suddenly understood what she had heard just a few seconds ago.

"Hey-! Goddamn Marimo!" An annoyingly familiar and unwelcome voice called from right outside the door. And a second later, Sanji opened up the door with her keycard. He took in the scene of Zoro trying to hold Katherine and just froze. And in those few seconds of hesitation, Katherine managed to slip out of Zoro's hold and out of the room. Zoro immediately tried to follow but Sanji stopped him.

"Woah!" Sanji shouted, forgetting what he was there for for a moment. The idea of a lady, any lady, looking like she was being terrorized set off alarm bells for him. "Stop shitty marino!" Sanji blocked the door with his leg and Zoro felt like hitting him. He would have tried of course, but there didn't seem to be time for it.

"Move now!" Zoro growled at Sanji, but Sanji refused to move.

"No! Explain the situation right now you god damn bastard or else I will take you out myself." Sanji swore, and Zoro glared at him, wishing a very, very painful demise. "Now listen shithead." Snaji snarled, "She is already gone. If you just run off now, you will get lost and then I don't know what the fuck you won't to happen but it won't." he promised. And Zoro, even though he didn't want to, reluctantly calmed down. He took a few deep breaths before finally telling Sanji an abridged version of what happened.

And Sanji, reminded of his own problem, just sighed, "women in your family are bitches aren't they?' he asked and Zoro was surprised to hear him use that word. He wouldn't say how surprised he was, but he was. He quickly told Zoro his own problem. "Think your shady ass cousin and fiancée and doing this together?" Sanji asked, absentmindedly reaching for a cigarette. Zoro shook his head.

"No, neither of them are team players like this. All of this was just really shitty coincidence." Zoro tried to go to the door again. "Now let me go so that I can find either her or Luffy." Zoro ordered, but Sanji refused to move again.

"Not a chance." Sanji told him. "IF you go now, you'll just make shit worse." Sanji sighed. "Let me call someone. They'll find Luffy for you." Sanji, in a rare moment of kindness towards Zoro, said. Zoro just grunted. "Anyway, let's go find your mom. If there's anybody who can crack the whip around here then it's her."

* * *

Usopp was surprised when he got the text from Sanji. He had just seen him after all. But this text was different than the normal ones. It read '_Ask lee Ann to find a guy named Monkey D. Luffy. Crazy blonde woman is after him.' _"Luffy- what?" Usopp muttered to himself before pocketing his phone. But, he supposed, if Sanji was asking him to do it then it must have been important. He immediately radioed Lee. "hey lee," he said, quickly weaving through the crowd in the direction that she had gone it.

"Look Usopp," she interrupted, "if you're just going to yell then-"

"It's not that!" Usopp said quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly. "Me and Sanji are fine. I just need you to find Luffy. A crazy blonde girl is after him and it's apparently a really bad thing." There was silence on Lee's end for a few seconds before she disconnected. Usopp had no doubt that she was currently using the hotel's radio systems to locate Luffy. Which shouldn't have been too hard. Luffy should have been eating around this time. And it was very hard to miss that.

Now, Usopp had no idea what was going on. He just hoped that whatever it was wouldn't go as bad as things with this particular group normally seemed to go.

* * *

I'm really sorry Kyouko68. I know I said that I would put some ShanksXMihawk in this chapter, but I'm waiting until the next chapter because it'll fit in a lot better there. So anyway, I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than normal. I just want to save the next part for the next chapter, seeing as if would have made this chapter too long.

Because basically, if you thought that this chapter was good then then just wait.

Next week! Luffy vs Katherine! The New Wife vs The Old Wife!-I mean!

Next week! Luffy vs Katherine! Everything Hits the Fan! Wait until then!


	15. It's on like Donkey Kong

Hello my lovely readers~! I'm sorry this chapter was a day late, but it's a long one!

Warning: cursing, beta relationships (mainly SanUso), I'll also be using the time stamps less often because more and more things will be happening more or less simultaneously.

And a special thanks to:** ZoluFangirl17, Azab, XxShadows99xX, Mad hatter Usagi, PheonixShadow, Kyouko68, and Kat-and-Midnight **for their fantastic reviews~! They mean a lot to me.

* * *

10:50 am

Nami glanced out the window to her right and narrowed her eyes slightly. It was still early but there was a steady wind picking up. She could see a few stray trees beginning to sway underneath the force of the wind and even farther away, the ocean waves seemed larger than normal. Of course she wouldn't be able to tell anything from her seat in the restaurant. To be able to understand what was really brewing out there she would need to get out there and observe the water, humidity, wind pressure, and a whole slew of other things. But she simply didn't feel like it. She was on break. She was having fun.

Sitting at the table with her were Robin, Vivi, and Shirahoshi. While Vivi and Robin were calmly discussing Arabasta, Vivi's home country, Shirahoshi was looking out the window with Nami. When she noticed Nami watching her, Shirahoshi's already rosy cheeks turned a little darker. "I was born near the ocean." Shirahoshi said quietly. "Looking at it reminds me of home. And my mother." Even though her voice was quiet, Shirahoshi's words carried over to Nami. And Nami understood that.

She had been born near the sea. Or at least, her adopted mother Bellemere had told her that when she was young. Bellemere had described the whole things like a fairytale; finding two small girls all by themselves on an island. But Shirahoshi's voice also carried a little sadness, which Nami understood as well. Vivi had told her that Shirahoshi's mother had passes away when she was younger from a bad bought of Pneumonia. Bellemere had drowned almost a decade ago, helping someone else out of a boating accident. And for a while after that, Nami had feared the sea. But the best cure for fear was knowledge. So she had learned and learned about the oceans, about currents, about the wind, until she wasn't afraid anymore. Even if it couldn't bring Bellemere back, Nami's knowledge had comforted her.

And Shirahoshi seemed to understand that Nami understood because she soon turned her sights back to the ocean. Next to them, Vivi and Robin's conversation came to a lull. "Do you see anything Nami?" Robin's question took Nami by surprise and she blinked a little before answering.

"Well," she paused, knowing that Robin was really asking about the weather rather than her view. "It's hard to tell from her, but it looks like there's a bad storm brewing." Nami glanced out again. It would hit later tonight at maybe 7, 8pm? She worked out some of the calculations in her head. Diagonally from her, Vivi smiled.

"Well that'll be something to look forward to tonight." she smiled before explaining to a slightly confused Shirahoshi. "Nami to the go-to person for weather predictions. She's never wrong about them either." Vivi smoke almost like a parent proud of their child. Nami just shot her a playful glare.

"Don't say it like that Vivi." she chided. "It's not like I'm a hundred percent correct all of the time."

"What do they call you in your meteorology class?" Vivi persisted. She smiled when she say Nami's playful smile turn slightly sour.

"The Wicked Witch of the West Winds." Nami scoffed at the bad joke. Shirahoshi and Vivi seemed to think that it was a cute nickname though and Robin just sat there and smiled, her coffee mug shielding the smile slightly so that only Nami could see. Nami noticed and her cheeks turned a little pink. Robin was going to tease her for that later (in addition to many other things, Nami had learned that Robin also had a bit of a mean streak). But before she could do anything to convince Robin that the nickname wasn't worth teasing her over, she spotted a familiar black head of hair.

"Ace?" she asked, standing up as much as she could in the booth. She immediately recognized his freckled face before calling out his name again, louder this time. When he turned to look at her, she saw that he seemed to be annoyed. But he walked over anyway with his little brother, Luffy in tow. Luffy had some stray noodles in his hair.

"Food fight." Ace answered before Nami could even open up her mouth to ask. "This idiot," he jabbed a finger at Luffy, "Had a food fight with the idiot that runs the resort." Just like always, Shanks had proved that he really just was a kid trapped in an adult's body by starting a food fight with Luffy and then ordering Ace to pick up more food.

Of course Ace had then dragged Luffy with him. The idiot was going to carry the food back. Ace noticed Robin next. "Ms. Robin." he tipped his head slightly and Robin smiled back at him. She still had him a little flustered, but he had, for the most part, gotten better at hiding it. Ace also greeted Vivi and Shirahoshi, although it was his second time meeting the latter. "What are you lovely ladies going down here?" Ace asked.

"Just finishing lunch." Vivi smiled before she pulled out her purse. "But I think we're about through." she looked around at the other for conformation, and everybody nodded, with the exception of Robin who just placed her mug down. And while they sorted out the meal fees, Ace glanced across the resort at one of the bars on this floor. It wasn't even noon yet, but a drink or two sounded nice. Not that Ace had a problem or anything. But unfortunately, only drunkards drank during the day. And by the sound of it, some drunken bastards were raising up a ruckus now. Ace wrinkled his noise at the thought. Next to him, Luffy picked at the food that Shirahoshi had left on her plate. He was still hungry and her omelet looked good.

"'ey eres ur 'og?" Luffy asked though a mouthful of omelet. Shirahoshi looked confused at the question until Ace dutifully translated.

"Oh, Megalo?" she said a bit nervously. "He's up in my room. He doesn't like crowds too much." Luffy, after he had swallowed his food, and Shirahoshi began chatting about Megalo after that and Ace tuned both of them out as he craned his neck and searched for somewhere that might have something other than breakfast food. Some more Chinese sounded good right about now. But as he thought that, Ace saw someone in a resort uniform running towards them. He didn't recognize the guy, but Luffy seemed to.

"Oh Usopp!" Luffy called out as the guy came to a stop near them. Usopp, after casting a quick glance around, grabbed Luffy's arm.

"Come on Luffy!" Usopp said quickly as he continued to scan the crowd. His nervousness would have struck Ace as funny if it hadn't been so weird.

"Hey!" Ace called quickly as he grabbed Luffy's other arm. The two of them stopped and Usopp glared at Ace before quickly cowering under Ace's own glare. "Just where are you going?" Behind them, the rest of the group had stopped moving around. Vivi and Shirahoshi seemed to recognize this Usopp guy too.

"I just need to bring him to our superior's office." Usopp said quickly. Even though Ace had no way of knowing, Usopp's search for Luffy had left him a little frazzled. As most things did, Sanji's text message had begun bouncing around and resounding in his head so it sounded less like a request and most like something incredibly urgent.

But Ace wasn't fully convinced. Or rather, Usopp's suspicious manner was a bit off setting. "For what?" he asked stubbornly. And for a second, Usopp had the urge to roll his eyes. But he wanted his face intact 'thank you very much'. So instead he settled for sighing. He quickly took out his phone, found Sanji's message and handed the phone to Ace. "Nothing serious. A friend just wants to see him." Usopp explained quickly. He tugged on Luffy's arm again to see if Ace's grip would loosen at all.

No such luck. Instead it seemed to be the opposite. Ace's grip tightened (Usopp knew because of the uncomfortable noise Luffy made) and when he locked eyes with Usopp, Usopp knew he'd made a bad choice. Ace's eyes were a steely grey; hard and unforgiving like iron.

"What the hell is going on?" Ace snapped and Vivi stepped forward in the background, almost like she wanted to calm the situation. Instead Usopp shrank back. Ace might have followed up with another question but what happened next took him by surprise. Both of them had failed to notice the petite blonde marching up to them. Her expression was one of concentration with a little bit of glee. In a matter of moments, her expression shifted to that of an enraged girlfriend.

The slap rang out and took everyone by surprise. Most of all Luffy. One moment he had been trying to tug his arm out of Ace's too tight grip and the next moment his cheek had stung. It hadn't really hurt, but it had sure as hell surprised him. He was then aware of a girl (the smarter part of his brain recognized her as the blonde lady who had been with the bug eyed girl a few days ago) yelling at him. Mostly something about stealing.

* * *

Ace watched in shock for a few seconds as some random girl began verbally _tearing_ into his brother. He didn't notice the shiver that went up Usopp's spine, or Nami and Vivi's own noises of outrage. His confusion continued when he actually heard what the woman was screaming about. His brother… stealing- wait what? Ace caught the part about Luffy being a 'fiancé stealing whore' before he moved in and stood between the angry woman and his brother.

"Whoa!" Ace said quickly. "Calm down!" he snapped at her. Before he even had time to wonder what the hell she was going on about, she was suddenly sobbing about a canceled wedding and a ruined life and suddenly his face hurt too and he realized belatedly that she had hit him too. Ace, his head already turned from the force of the slap, quickly looked to Luffy for guidance, but Luffy just looked like an extremely confused deer in headlights. He couldn't even function well under calm situations, much less a fast paced- confusing situation like this. At that moment he had decided that he'd had enough. He grabbed her wrists and just barely kept himself from shouting. "Stop!" he told her again. "What _in the 7 hells_ are you talking about?"

But instead of her answering, Ace instead heard a loud and obnoxious laugh. From behind the woman came a tanned man with bleached hair and a bright pink shirt. He absolutely reeked of alcohol. "Oh! So that's the fag you were talking about!" He laughed loudly and Ace immediately snarled at him. If he hadn't been taken by surprise with the strange twist of events, he would have decked the guy. Luffy just cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"It's not him." the girl, on the other hand, hiccupped. Ace glanced down at her but was shocked to find that instead of a pitiful girl, he saw something sharp and devious. Oh her shoulders were slumped and her hands were balled up in front of her face like she had been crying, but her eyes were bright and manic. She was watching his reactions like a hawk. All while leading on the stupid, drunken bastard behind her.

"Not him?" The guy asked obnoxiously. "Then the smaller one right?" the girl nodded and he let out a loud laugh, just like a hyena. "Of fucking course! It's always the gay ass looking ones!" This time, Ace wasn't the only one to snap. He could just hear Nami's indignant voice pitching in.

"What the hells your problem!"

"What your damn words you son of a bitch!" Ace snarled at him. He let go of the girl and turned on him. "Who the hell are you and what are you blabbering about?!" Behind him, Luffy seemed to finally be getting a handle on the current situation.

The guy just laughed though. "Oh, the little bitch behind you didn't tell you?-" And this time Ace almost couldn't hold back the urge to deck him. "He gets off by flipping straight guys, don't ya fag?" He laughed cruelly and Luffy finally responded.

"What? What are you talking about? Who are you? Both of you?" Luffy's rapid fire questions were a last ditch effort of his scattered brain to get back to the topic on hand. And while the guy looked like he wanted to open up his mouth and be an ass again, the girl held a hand up and shushed him.

"I'm Zoro's fiancée." she tipped her head up slightly. "He's canceling it because of you, you know." her eyes flashed dangerously. And while Ace wanted to just write her and her problems off, Luffy finally seemed to recognize her.

"Zoro's-?" he paused. "What do you mean he's calling it off?" Luffy vaguely remembered Zoro telling him about his marriage, but he had never told him much. And Ace, who had been sure about his brother's innocence in the situation, felt a little bit of uncertainty. What exactly was going on here?

"I meant what I said. He's calling it off and it's all your fault. How does it feel to steal someone else's husband?" the girl told him sullenly. Her question had a bite to it.

"I didn't steal anything!" Luffy snapped at her. "Zoro's my friend!" Luffy stepped forward and the male blonde 'ass face' opened his mouth again.

"Watch out boys!" he called out over his shoulder. "Let him get too close and he might go after you-" The, man's face made a satisfying noise as Ace's fist collided with it.

Now it wasn't a secret that Ace was overprotective of his younger brother. Back when he had started fighting, opponents would sometimes try to distract him by bringing up Luffy right before their fights. It was the usual nonsense; about how he was cute, and the lewd things they'd do to him, with the occasional suggestion of incestuous activities between them. They had probably meant to shake Ace up, or throw off his concentration, but instead these matches always ended the fastest. The comments made him mad of course, but Ace was used to fighting angry, and he liked it. It was more of a strength boost than anything else. One time was memorable in particular because one idiot, some guy named Rogers, not only had the nerve to tell Ace several lewd things he wanted to do with his little brother, he'd also put his hand on Luffy's ass right before the match. That fight had been his bloodiest one to date. The only reason it hadn't been over right away was because Ace had wanted to make him suffer. A one hit KO would have been too good for the bastard.

And Ace was feeling that same anger now. He controlled himself enough so that the guy hadn't been totally bowled over. Instead he started stumbling backwards and Ace followed him; the promise of a nice, long thrashing in his eyes.

But of course idiots like this guy never traveled alone. And in a manner of seconds, a whole group of other drunken idiots had poured out of the bar and formed a semicircle around the guy and Ace.

* * *

Usopp watched Ace deck the guy with something akin to horror. Across from him, Vivi had covered her mouth in shock and Shirahoshi was cowering. The red head quickly moved forward to stop Ace but she was held back by the black haired woman who just watched with narrowed eyes. Luffy quickly went to back up his brother and Usopp noticed the blonde girl, who now had a shit eating grin on her face, step back and disappear into the crowd of onlookers. Crazy, huh? That was the understatement of the century. But it seemed that crazy liked company because as Usopp followed her with his eyes, he noticed another pair of eyes watching him.

Goosebumps erupted all over his skin as he saw the creepy bug eyed girl from a few days back watching him from across the hall. He was watching her and ended up not seeing a drunken guy step close to him and grab him by his work shirt. He immediately started flailing as he was hauled out of the restaurant by this guy (who also reeked of alcohol) and his instincts were the only thing keeping him for getting decked when the man suddenly swung wide at him.

'They must think I'm with those two.' he realized belatedly. And for a few seconds he worried about the two of them until he heard all of the groans of pain. None of them sounded like Luffy or Ace's voice so Usopp considered that a good thing. But, as another shot clipped his ear, Usopp realized that he didn't have time to worry about them if he wanted to keep his face as is. So he quickly brought his knee up and kneed the drunk in the crotch. The man's hands immediately dived to protect his, now bruised, family jewels from further assault, but Usopp used the chance to hit him in the face with a right hook. The man went down, but Usopp only had a few seconds to celebrate before someone else came after him.

He wasn't a fighter and so he felt no qualms with resorting to low blows to get these guys off of him. And the moment he broke free, he got far away from the scuffle. Behind him, the groans were getting louder, and at this point, he saw Ace quite literally pick someone up and throw them like they were a barrel in a Donkey Kong game. "Monsters." he muttered under his breath.

"Horo horo horo, so there you are again." Usopp let out a high pitched screech. He had totally forgotten about her! And there she was- right next to him. Without further thought, Usopp took off away from the crowd and he shot off towards the stairwell.

He had thought he would be able to lose her, (he'd seen her shoes, it would be a pain for her to run), but like a ghost she drifted after him. Which somehow made the whole situation worse. He had almost made it to the stairwell door when he heard someone call him.

"Usopp!"

* * *

Zoro's breath was coming in pants by the time they had reached the right floor. Usopp had texted them his and Luffy's location just a few minutes ago, and with any luck, he would be able to find Luffy before Katherine did. But, unfortunately, there was no such luck.

By the time they got there, it was impossible to tell if either Usopp or Katherine were still there simply because a gigantic brawl had taken up a large chunk of the floor. And lo and behold, at the center of the brawl were Luffy and Ace. Now Zoro vaguely remembered seeing Luffy fight back in Little garden and he had seen Luffy train multiple times, but both experiences paled when it came to actually seeing him fight up close.

Luffy was a brawler all right. While he had a few techniques, his overall style was one where he could adapt to opponents easily. When one person charged him with a wide swing, Luffy shifted forward into their space with a short range blow so that he was able to strike faster. His favorite areas to attack were also weak points, like the chin and, Zoro noticed with a slight wince, the balls.

His brother also lived up to his reputation. While Luffy was more about quick, numerous strikes, Ace was all about power. His blows, no matter where they landed, sent people stumbling back. Already his fists were covered in somebody else's blood. Next to him, his mother watched the unfolding scene with detached eyes. She was there purely because Zoro had asked for her help (which was rare in and of itself). Katherine had finally overstepped herself, even if her mind wouldn't understand. She finally needed a firm hand.

Her sharp eyes spotted Kate at the edge of the crowd, a smile on her pretty little face. But she didn't follow her. Not yet.

* * *

On Zoro's other side, Sanji was scanning the crowd too, but for a completely different reason. Usopp should have been there since he couldn't have spotted Luffy more than a few minutes ago. Finally he caught sight of him hitting a guy in the balls hard enough to send him tumbling over. He felt a sudden surge of pride at Usopp's sudden, if not a bit questionable, fighting ability. His relief grew when Usopp escaped the brawl and stopped at the edge of the crowd. But as soon as it had come, it was extinguished by the sight of a certain pink haired girl. Snarling her name under his breath, Sanji darted through the crowd to get to them. Along the way, some idiot tried swinging at him so Sanji casually smashed his loafer into the guy's face. The bastard went down clutching at his nose. Anyone else who tried was just a blur in Sanji's mind.

When he finally broke free of the crowd, he called Usopp's name. "Usopp!"

* * *

uffy worked on autopilot. He punched, kicked, swept his leg, went through all of his fighting techniques without really thinking about them. The whole thing was confusing. It was a mystery situation. But unlike most mystery things, Luffy actually wanted to figure this out.

So Zoro was marrying that girl then? She was pretty (despite what most people assumed Luffy did know about things like physical attraction) and short so her and Zoro would look nice together. But her eyes were nasty and missing… something. Luffy wrinkled his nose at the thought and dodged a stray punch. He quickly turned and punched the assailant square in the nose. And she had a nice voice, he guessed. From Ace's videos, Luffy figured that she was the type of girl that most men wanted to do things with… so what was the problem?

She mentioned 'stealing Zoro', but did she mean stealing from him? He'd never taken anything. When he was younger he had tried stealing with Ace at one point, but their grandpa had beat that out of them. So since he hadn't taken anything from Zoro, did she mean stealing Zoro from… her? Which also didn't make sense. They were getting married right? Which meant that he liked her a lot. Him and Luffy were just friends. Admittedly, Luffy felt happier around Zoro than the rest of his friends, but that was because Zoro was so cool! The feeling he got around Zoro was different that what he got around Shanks or Ace too. He just felt really happy with Zoro, and he didn't want to think about Zoro leaving when his trip was done because it would actually make his chest hurt. It was a mystery pain.

But Luffy forced his brain back on track. But it didn't make sense that she thought that he would steal Zoro from her. He would have to find Zoro later and ask about it. And with that thought in mind, Luffy continued to punch, kick, and all around beat, the guys trying to take him down.

* * *

Robin forced Vivi, Nami, and Shirahoshi back into the restaurant when the fight began to get worse. Shirahoshi was in tears by this point and she was sobbing into Vivi's shoulder out of pure fright. Vivi was paler than normal and she looked sick with dread. Nami, however, was clutching Robin's arm. And thought she would normally push away anyone who got in her personal space, she allowed Nami to remain there.

Outside the restaurant, she could see Ace and Luffy fighting. They were monsters, both of them. But their abnormal strength seemed to be keeping them safe as of now. She looked out again and saw a few uniformed resort employees heading towards the mob.

* * *

It wasn't until a security guard got into the mix that things seemed to go downhill fast. Suddenly there were more resort uniforms in the mix and instead of just fighting Ace and Luffy; the drunkards were fighting the staff too. It wasn't even about aiming anymore. They just swung at everything. When Smoker fought his way to him and Ace, both of them stopped fighting, Ace with the condition that Smoker 'not put his fucking hands on him' . And while Ace usually got all hot and heavy around Smoker, he was _not_ feeling it now.

"What the hell happened here?!" Smoker snarled at both of them from amidst the chaos and Ace responded with an angry snort.

"These bastards started harassing my little brother." Ace snarled as he turned around to sock a guy who had been trying to get him off guard.

Smoker shoved another assailant away with his baton. "And so you start a brawl? Dumbass!" Luffy meanwhile flipped a guy who got too close to him.

"I didn't start shit!" Ace only half lied. "His damn friends jumped in." Which was the truth.

* * *

Usopp froze when he realized that it was Sanji, not the creepy girl, who had called out to him. The girl seemed to recognize Sanji's voice too because she immediately frowned. As Sanji neared them, she opened her mouth to taunt him, but he completely ignored her. Instead he didn't stop running until he was in front of Usopp.

"Idiot!" Sanji suddenly yelled. "Why the hell did you just run off like that?" Taken completely by surprise, Usopp just sputtered,

"D-did you- can't you tell I'm being chased?!" he gestured at Perona, who quite honestly, felt like a third wheel in the situation. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Stay in a crowded area or something!" Sanji said immediately. "What were you thinking running off like that? That's what the stupid guy in the horror film always does."

"Well excuse me!" Usopp snapped. "The only crowd over there is that huge brawl. And excuse me for not wanting to stay there. I just barely got out myself."

"You were doing fine." Sanji said dismissively. And before Usopp could retort, he realized something.

"You were watching me?" he asked. His voice was a lot less snappish. And Sanji nodded.

"Yeah, I saw you take down a couple of big guys there. I didn't know you had it in you." And Usopp's cheeks and ears turned red.

"You-you're just saying that." he stuttered. Honest complements always seemed to make him flustered.

"No. Trust me," Sanji smiled a little. "If you were bad then I would have said so. Although the crotch kicks made me wince a little." Usopp blushed even more.

"Well, they were bigger than me." he muttered, his logic didn't sound as sound outside the fight as it had inside the fight. "So I just figured that anything would go." And Sanji laughed before sweeping him into a rare bear hug. And they were rare because for someone like Sanji, who had been raised amongst criminals and other men who didn't believe in men full on hugging other men, it was the kind of thing saved up for special women.

And this dangerous thought led to an even more dangerous action. Sanji had noted that he didn't really think things through before saying them, and it seemed especially true now.

"I love you Sanji." Once the words were out, it took Usopp a good few seconds to realize that he had been the one to say it. Sanji's body stiffened up and Usopp immediately wished that he could just melt into the floor. "li-like a fr-friend, right?" Usopp quickly tried making it seem like a joke. "Hahah-" Usopp's unconvincing explanation trailed off and he felt tears prick at his eyes. He realized what he said was true. He really did love Sanji. And it wasn't the 'overly dramatic, whirlwind, confess in front of a sunset' kind of love. He had probably like Sanji when he first met him too. Getting to know Sanji had been fun and even when he was younger he had enjoyed being around him. Even with his first female crush Kaya, the thing that had caught his eye was her blonde hair. It was several shades lighter than Sanji's but still…

And when his father had died and Sanji had comforted him, emotionally and physically, underneath all of the soul crushing depression, there had been a small spark of happiness. And later his friend Heracle-Un would draw from that flame to help him move on, but Sanji had started that. And when he had come back, everything had felt so natural and it had been fun around him. When he had yelled at Sanji, his heart had hurt so much that he had literally thought that it would break into two. He was a nervous person so he'd always thought that if he ever used that word then it would be after careful planning or something like that. Not like this.

But, as Usopp's mind focused again, he realized something strange. Sanji hadn't shoved him away yet, nor had he even moved his arms. He just stood there, as if in shock. "S-Sanji-?" he stuttered and Sanji jumped. "Sanji, what are you-" Usopp tried looking at Sanji's face but he could only see his ear from his position. And Sanji's ears were beet red.

Feeling a strange fluttering in his chest (which definitely wasn't hope because hope was very good and it hurt to have your hopes dashed and he didn't want that) Usopp tried again. "Sanji- can-can I see your face?" his voice was a little higher pitched than normal. Sanji muttered something into his shoulder, but Usopp couldn't understand it. "What?" he tried before finally wriggling back and lifted Sanji's head up.

Sanji's face was bright red and his visible eye was impossibly wide. He was gaping slightly at Usopp as if he was sure that he hadn't heard him right. Usopp's face turned even redder just seeing his face.

"Why is your face so red Sanji?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't it be when you said something like that?! Idiot!" Sanji probably meant for it to sound snappish, but it came off as flustered and Usopp felt the hope in his chest grow. "Don't just go saying things out of nowhere like that!"

"So does that mean you- um," although Usopp didn't want to, he kept his eyes trained on Sanji's. "Um-like me-". Sanji cut him off by suddenly grabbing the sleeves of his uniform and pulling him close.

And at that moment, both of them were terrified and Usopp's nose was poking Sanji in the cheeks and their faces were probably redder than possible, but none of those things seemed to matter.

Even though Sanji had closed the distance, Usopp made the first move. Slowly, oh so slowly (because if he moved any faster Usopp was afraid he'd fumble or do something stupid), Usopp tilted his head to the side so that his nose was no longer poking Sanji and he pressed his life against Sanji's. It could hardly be called a movie kiss. Usopp was awkward and Sanji was stunned. But after a few seconds, Sanji wrapped his arms back around Usopp frame and drew him in closer. He deepened the kiss and everything quickly turned from unsure to desperate. Usopp tipped his head back and Sanji moved his hand down from Usopp's shoulder to his hip.

Usopp made a small noise when Sanji drew back. Sanji's face was still pink but he collected himself a little. "Um," the usually eloquent Sanji hesitated. "Yeah, it kinda does." And then he grinned again, and it was one of his special, no snark, grins.

* * *

Perona bit her lip and glanced around while Usopp and Sanji went through their confessions. She had come here to torment Usopp, but then this had happened and kinda thrown her off. Part of her wanted to at least say something since she came all this way, but the other part just really wanted to be anywhere else. Especially when they started making out. Perona winced and glanced back towards the brawl. She could still hear people fighting. So yeah. She was just going to head over there and…

"ACE! LUFFY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!"

* * *

After Smoker had arrived, the brawl had continued on and unfortunately, he wasn't able to tell off Ace or Luffy because he was too busy wrestling people to the ground. As soon as he'd get one out of the way, another one would pop up. It felt like an endless wave. Meanwhile, Ace and Luffy weren't helping much. They were taking people down but they were still causing a fuss.

From somewhere in the crowd, Smoker could hear Shanks yelling for people to let him through. But it was hard to tell if anyone was actually moving because the next moment a loud roar ripped through the crowd,

"ACE! LUFFY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!" An old man with grey hair and a brick wall like body shouted and the drunkards immediately quieted down at his voice.

Only Luffy and Ace's voices were heard next. "Grandpa?!"

* * *

Wow, my shoulders hurt after typing out all of that. Haha.

But Jeez, Luffy, why are you so hard to write. Sanji and Usopp are easy to write romantically but with Luffy it's all mystery feelings. And by the look of things, Luffy's husband Zoro won't be any easier XD

And whoops. I may have mad Sanji a little tsundere there. But I figured that since Sanji's such a ladies man, he'd be bowled over if someone, ya know, actually liked him. Especially if it was his long nosed husband Usopp.

But anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. It was a lot of fun to write and it's one of the longest things I've written in a while. I want to guess that there will be about 3 chapters after this, but it'll most likely end before chapter 20.

And I'm sorry again Kyouko68! I'll make your ShanksXMihawk a separate little ficlet. Just PM me a prompt and I'll write it for you. The same for anybody else. Just send me a pairing and prompt (doesn't have to be Luffy or Zoro centric) all I'll write up something for you. Just include whether it's AU or something. I still allow Anon messages and Pms so just ask~

Until next week~


	16. I just wanted Cute Grandchildren!

Unfortunately. I really can't apologize enough for the delay. A mixture of academic stuff (I'm going to college next year!) and family members trying to force me to have a mental breakdown made it hard for me to write for a while. But in the meantime, I finished Star Crossed! The next chapter (the last one) should be up on Saturday or Sunday and then after that will be a pretty little epilogue since you all were such great readers (because seriously, your support meant so much~)

And with that being said, the only warning in this chapter is for language

Enjoy!

* * *

Despite the hellish training he put them through, and his borderline neglectful treatment of them, Ace and Luffy still loved their grandfather. When he wasn't in some sort of rage, he was usually cheerful and warm, like the sun. And he would sometimes go with them to the ocean and they would all play in the waves like a real family would in movies and on TV. And both of them, despite Ace not being related to him by blood, had picked up good and bad traits from him. Namely their eating habits, strange senses of humor, and fighting spirit. In fact, he had been the one who had taught Ace how to throw a proper punch. So, despite the fact that Garp now found himself staring down his grandchildren amidst a pile of drunkards in various states of consciousness, he wasn't so much angry at them as he was the reason for his impromptu visit.

Garp had tried to raise them right.. On his soul, he had done everything that he thought was best for them. All in hopes of making them, at the most, marines, and, at the very least, good, ordinary citizens. Because if they were marines then they would have been seen as less of a threat. As it stood, his superior Sengoku had let him get away with hiding his grandson's lineage for a long time; longer than Garp had expected him to. And now Sengoku -no the world government- had given him an ultimatum.

Luffy stared dumbfounded when he saw his grandfather. Garp, who towered over the rest of the crowd of onlookers, made his way over to them. And the majority of the crowd was smart enough to make way for him. Those that didn't ended up being knocked to the ground by his bulk. It was like watching a bullshark swim through a school of fish. Ace and Luffy, despite being terrified, bravely stood their ground, even as Garp stopped right in front of them. It was barely noticeable, but Luffy had begun trembling and Ace's knuckles had turned white from the force of his clenched fingers. He knew what was coming next but he refused to cower.

"Ace, Luffy," Garp's voice rumbled ominously like thunder. Behind the brothers, Smoker internally debated stepping in and defusing the situation. "Just… what are you two doing?-" Garp's fist flew out like lightning strike and nailed Ace right in the face. With a strange sort of ease, Garp's blow sent Ace back into the air about a foot before he hit the ground rolling, and came to a stop when his body slammed into a wall. Garp's momentum carried him until he reached Luffy and he caught Luffy by the shirt and tossed him through the air into a table that had been abandoned when the fighting had started. Luffy had just enough time to cover his head before he hit the table, slid off, and landed on the ground. The table, having been jarred by the impact, tipped over onto him. "IDIOTS!" Garp roared, and his face turned a shade of red that would have been amusing had he not just knocked his grandchildren around like rag dolls.

Shanks was flabbergasted. He should have been used to these kind of antics since he had known the family for so long, but this was just ridiculous. Garp should've at least shown some restraint. They were in public after all! And he let this opinion flood into his next words. "Garp!" Shanks shouted from his place amongst the crowd. He quickly walked forward. "What in the HELL do you think you're doing?!" In a moment of reckless anger, Shanks jabbed Garp in the middle of his muscled chest. Garp calmly ignored him and folded his arms over his chest. He managed to look even more threatening.

"Get up an answer me you brats!" Garp shouted. Shanks tried getting Garp's attention again only to have Ace, of all people, stop him.

"Don't even waste your breath Shanks." Ace said from his position on the ground. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and wiped at the blood on his face with the back of his hand. Most of it was from his nose and he glared at Garp. "Because our family can't get through even ONE gathering without beating the shit out of each other, can we old man?!" Garp scowled at the 'old man' part.

"Shut up you brat!" Garp yelled, but he remained where he was as Ace got up. "How can I go easy on such hard headed grandchildren? All I wanted was a pair of cute little kids who would be happy whenever I came home and would say cute things like 'Welcome home Grampy~!'. Instead I got a pair of damn delinquents!" Garp shouted.

"Shut up!" Ace shouted back. "Like hell we'd call you back!" His face turned red all the while. Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd shifted uneasily. The fight beforehand had been sudden and exciting. The old man's arrive had been terrifying. And now the suddenly squabble seemed incredibly domestic. Too much so. And so floor security, a stunned Smoker included, took the opportunity to start clearing out the crowd. Nervous customers were calmed down. Tables that had been turned over were righted (except for the one on top of Luffy). And the battered drunks were picked up and escorted elsewhere. But Ace and Garp's argument was still a very loud and very noticeable entity in the background.

"It's not my fault that I'm not cute!" Ace shouted and his face turned even redder at the ridiculous statement. "And Luffy!-" he snapped his head in Luffy's direction. "Get up already! Don't think that just laying there is gonna get you out of this!" And surprisingly enough, the table moved and Luffy got up, looking slightly dazed but otherwise ok. There was a bruise on his cheek but that was about it. Luffy hopped up to his feet after a moment and then moved to Ace's side. "Now Old Man," Ace rested a hand on Luffy's shoulder. "Why the hell are you here?" and now, instead of angry, Garp had an expression on his face that Ace had never seen there before -doubt. Then he did something even more bizarre. Garp hesitated.

"Let's go to Red Hair's office." Garp said gruffly. He turned on his heel and walked off. Ace and Luffy shared a look before following after him.

* * *

After watching that display, Zoro realized for the first time, that maybe his family wasn't the worst one out there. For example, no one in his family had ever hit or _thrown_ anyone else (outside of the dojo). His family was more of the 'mind screw' variety anyway. But he watched the whole family reunion play out in some sort of stupor. It was only when Ace and Luffy started to leave that that he remembered why he had come in the first place. Well, he couldn't prevent anything anymore, but he could try to help clear up some of the mess. He glanced around and noticed that Sanji still hadn't come back yet. Figured. But his mother was still by his side with a detached look on her face.

Her eyes met his and she gave him a thin smile. So he moved forward until he came to a stop in front of the red haired man that had confronted Garp earlier. "Excuse me-" Zoro started and he could have sworn that the man's shoulders had sagged.

"I apologize for the display earlier." The man started what sounded like a well rehearsed speech. After a few moments, Zoro cut him off.

"I don't quite-"

"You don't have a complaint?" The man asked shrewdly. Zoro shook his head. "Thank goodness." This time he sagged in relief. "What do you need then?"

"I just wanted to clear up this mess." Zoro said, making sure to maintain eye contact. "I know the woman who started this. She's my ex-fiancée." Zoro muttered and felt, rather than saw, the look that his mother threw him at the last half of the sentence. "She's not very stable and I know that she's the source of this." Zoro paused and licked his lips, "But a lot of the blame lies with me as well."

And Shanks looked at the young man; really looked at him. At first glance, he looked like some kind of thug. His hair was a light green, a scar covered his left eye, and three golden earrings dangled from his left year. But he had an honest face; a bit intimidating but honest. He also maintained eye contract, something that most people didn't do anymore. So Shanks trusted him. "Very well, let's go and you can explain it on the way. Mr-"

"Zoro."

"Ok then Zoro. You can call me Shanks."

* * *

Somewhere between the start of his conversation with Shanks and their walk to the elevator, Zoro realized that his mother had disappeared somewhere. But he chose not to dwell on that fact. On the way to his office, Zoro explained the situation to the best of his abilities. "So you were here on vacation with your family and you and Luffy started dating- ok became very close friends," Shanks amended when Zoro glared at him. Even with one eye he was super intimidating. "Geez, don't look at me like that. It reminds me too much of Hawkey." Shanks huffed as he remembered his golden eyed college roommate. He wondered what had happened to him anyway. "Anyway, so the girl just snapped and created this mess 'just because'?" Shanks concluded and Zoro nodded. It was more or less correct. "Oh boy." Shanks muttered." and rubbed his hand along his face. "Just great."

The little elevator dinged and Shanks realized that he should have paid whoever insulated it more money because he had done a hell of a job. The elevators themselves had done a great job blocking out the shouting. The moment he had stepped out of the elevator, Shanks was already sprinting towards the door to his office. Zoro followed closely behind.

"This is bullshit!" The adrenaline that had fled Ace's body when Garp had shown up came roaring back. Ace clenched his fists and bared his teeth in a snarl. "Even you can't do this shit Garp!" Ace practically roared. Behind him, Luffy had retreated to a corner of the office, but it was hard to tell if he was surprised at Garp's news or shocked at Ace's sudden anger. However, Garp didn't even flinch. He clenched his jaw too and glared at Ace.

"I can and I did Ace." Garp snapped. "At least this way you two would serve under someone I trusted, and not someone I didn't-like that hotheaded Akainu.

"I don't give a shit about serving under anyone!" Ace shouted. "This Aokiji guy can just kiss my ass!"

"Watch your mouth brat." Garp snarled. Honestly Aokiji had been his best option. Kizaru would have been too lax on them while Akainu would have gone overboard. If he could then he would have taken both of them under his command but Sengoku had forbade it. "If there's anyone to blame then it's your damn father Ace!" Garp snarled at his grandson. "The same goes for you Luffy! I tried to raise you two the best I could but I have orders from the top that you two would either serve in the military or you would be viewed at like criminals." And he didn't care if Ace hated him afterwards for it, but he wouldn't let that happen. Ace, already annoyed at the thoughts of his no good father, became even more enraged and began hurling insults at Garp.

* * *

In the corner, Luffy watched his brother and grandfather fight with wide eyes. For some reason, he was terrified. He had been yelled at by both Ace and Garp before and it had never really fazed him before. The same went for the news. He was an idiot, but even he had realized that he would never be able to do anything like get through college on his own. The idea of being a marine had never really bothered him before either. But right now in the midst of Ace and Garp's argument, both of these things seemed even worse than they usually would.

He vaguely recognized the sound of the door and he was surprised to see Shanks suddenly come between Ace and Garp. He had his palm pressed against Garp's chest and he was looking between the two of them as he told them both off. Still standing in the doorway- Luffy's already nervous heart sped up a little when he realized it- was Zoro.

Zoro was glancing around the room, but when he caught sight of Luffy, he brightened up a little and his lips turned up slightly. Even even from across the room- even with the loud fight going on in the middle of the room- Zoro's presence was comforting. In a slow and almost unsure gesture, Luffy brought his hand up and waved it at Zoro. It was a slow wave and Luffy just raised his hand and curled his fingers slightly. Zoro, with a bit of hesitation on his end, mirrored the gesture. And for the first time since Garp's arrival, Luffy thought about the blonde girl's words from before. He hadn't stolen Zoro from her (or at least he didn't think he had), but part of him, the selfish part, wanted Zoro.

It wasn't that Luffy wasn't a really nice person. He was incredibly friendly to everybody. He had the fiercest loyalty towards anyone he considered a friend, and while it took a long time for anyone who had gotten onto his bad side to get back to his good side, once they were there, he treated them as if they had never left. But he was also rude and selfish. He usually didn't bother with learning names (unless something about you appealed to him right away) and he had a hard time listening to even simple instructions. One of his worst habits was the fact that he would do something he wasn't supposed to, even if he had been told not to do it minutes before.

He was also super selfish. If he wanted you to be his friend then there was often little you could do to dissuade him. And now that selfish part wanted Zoro. It wanted to be more than just friends with Zoro, but what 'more' was still eluded him.

But the argument had apparently come to a conclusion because the next second Ace had grabbed Luffy's wrist in a vice grip. "Come on Luffy." Ace snarled and the venom in his voice was almost palpable. "Let's go." He dragged Luffy to the door and brushed past Zoro without a word. And as he was pulled along, Luffy's free hand brushed Zoro's and a slight shock went through them both. But then it was gone again and Ace was dragging him to the elevator.

Inside, Ace jabbed the number for their floor and breathed in and out with aggravated huffs. His cheeks were flushed and just now his voice had been a little rasped. He began digging around in his pocket and he pulled out the two room keys. The first one he kept and he passed the other one to Luffy. The elevator dinged and Ace stepped out. "I'm going for a walk." Ace said shortly. He turned on his heel and began walking off. Luffy followed him out of the elevator but their paths quickly diverged. Luffy kept walking until he reached their room.

Inside the room, Luffy glanced around. In the brief time they'd been there, Ace and Luffy had managed to make the rented room feel more like home to them. It was dirty and clothes were strewn around everywhere, but it still usually made Luffy feel comfortable. But he didn't feel comfortable now. He was nervous again. There was only one place he could think of to go and calm down now. In a rare burst of insight, Luffy glanced out the window before he decided to leave. He saw the rain lashing at the windows and bent down to grab a bright red rain coat off of the floor and left the room. The door locked behind him with a solid click.

* * *

"You're making them enlist?" Shanks shouted when Garp had explained the situation.

Garp sighed. "It's out of my control. I could only choose who they were assigned too." he said gruffly. "It's their fathers' fault."

"Father's?" Zoro asked, wondering what their dad could have done to create this situation. Garp seemed to notice him for the first time.

"Who are you?" he asked sharply.

"A friend of Luffy's." Shanks said just as sharply. He glanced at Garp for a better explanation and Garp obliged him.

"Well, you see, those two have two separate fathers." Garp began explaining. "Ace's father was Gol D. Roger and Luffy's is Monkey D. Dragon." Garp paused to gauge their reactions. "I expect you know who they are." and indeed, Zoro and shanks did. Gol D. Roger, more widely known as 'Gold Roger', had been the king of underground, organized fighting. He had been romanticized as a bit of a modern day Capone. Dragon, or 'Revolutionary Dragon' had caused several uprisings in poor countries over the past few years. Roger had been executed 24 years ago while Dragon was still at large.

"The only alternative would have been for the two of them to spend some time at Impel Down." (whether it was in a cell or on the staff was something that Sengoku hadn't specified) Garp said grimly. Both Zoro and Shanks shivered at the thought. Impel Down was the world's largest and deadliest prison. It had a reputation as a literal hell on earth.

"Can they even do that?" Zoro asked after a brief silence.

"The world government can do whatever they want," Garp said with a hint of bitterness. "Luckily, they only need to serve for a few years. After that, they're free to do whatever." Garp sighed. "I already told them that I would be taking them back first thing in the morning, so if you wanted to say any goodbyes, then it would be a good time to do it now."

* * *

3 pm with Sanji and Usopp

Usopp sat by Sanji as Sanji continued to, metaphorically, poke a brooding tiger with a stick. "Don't worry Usopp," Sanji reassured him when he saw Usopp's worried looks. After all, Zoro's murderous glare would have been enough to send most people running. Sanji, however, was not most people and therefore was unaffected. But Zoro had yet to say anything anyway so Sanji just continued to poke and prod at him. "The Green Mosshead won't do anything."

"If you say so." Usopp sighed before he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He unlocked the screen and read the message from Lee of all people. 'Have you seen Luffy?' the bright message on his screen said.

'No.' he texted back and waited for a reply. After a few seconds he followed up with 'why?'. He automatically assumed it was either work related or related to the fight earlier. It took Lee and little time but she finally messaged back with,

'Ace just told me. Luffy's gone'.

* * *

And remember!

The next chapter is the last one!

I just want to thank anyone who reviewed the last chapter. I'll get to replying to those before the week is over!

Until next time!


	17. The Ice Queen and The Pirate King

So, this is the last real chapter for this story. After this is just the epilogue.

I am actually really sad to be finishing this story. It feels like I'm really closing the door on my first fanfic writing career. I've gotten better over the years, but there's still so much to improve on, which is why I love writing.

So the only warning this chapter is a little artistic license with search and rescue dogs and hypothermia.

* * *

Lee Ann frowned as she sent Usopp the text message. This wasn't good. She glanced back down at the paperwork on her desk and her frown deepened. Because of the incident earlier with Luffy and Ace, she was flooded with paper work and customer complaint forms. Not only had it thrown off her usual schedule, but it had also left her with a strong impulse to throttle the both of them. Because really? Fighting with drunks?

So at first she had just ignored Ace's texts asking if she had seen Luffy. It wasn't until they had gotten more frequent (about half an hour ago) that she had started paying attention to them. Admittedly, the time frame between the first text and the newest one worried her. Now Luffy had been missing for a few hours. So, she sent out a few more texts to some of her other contacts that might have seen him and waited. She had barely put her phone back down when the screen lit up and announced Usopp's call.

"What do you mean missing?" Usopp immediately asked when the call connected. On his end he was thinking of every bad possibility from a kidnapping to Luffy falling down a well. Because if nothing else, Usopp was creative. On her end, Lee was holding the phone a few inches away from her ear. Sometimes Usopp just didn't seem to realize how loud he was.

"I mean he's gone." Lee said a bit sullenly. She wasn't much better off information-wise than he was.

"How do you just lose a person? He doesn't have his phone on him?" Usopp continued. He didn't seem to catch the tone of her voice. Lee gave him another answer equivalent to a verbal shrug. Meanwhile, Sanji paused in his taunting of Zoro and glanced over at Usopp.

"What's up?" Sanji asked. Usopp just shrugged nervously but he did press the speaker button on his phone so that Sanji could hear as well.

"Well, what did Ace tell you?" Usopp asked nervously, and this time, Zoro's eye narrowed. What? Was Ace was missing? Or-

"He just told me that him and Luffy had an argument with their grandpa and Luffy went back to their room," Lee explained as she started filling out some more of the forms on her desk. Her voice came out slightly static-y on Usopp's speakers. "and when he went back later Luffy wasn't there. He assumed that Luffy went out to get something to eat, but he hasn't seen Luffy for at least a few hours now. And apparently," Lee huffed. "No one else has either." Zoro immediately shot up and grabbed the phone from Usopp.

Usopp was surprised by the sudden movement when Sanji looked ready to hit Zoro. "Hey bast-" but Zoro just ignored him.

"Where can I find Ace?" Zoro asked and Lee almost dropped her phone in shock. She definitely didn't recognize this person.

"Who are you?' she asked suspiciously. There was some annoyance in her voice as well.

"A friend of Luffy's." Zoro said and then paused. "My name is Zoro."

"Oh Zoro!" Lee immediately said. "So _you're_ Zoro. Luffy talks about you a lot you know."

"Yeah," Zoro said quickly, but in fact he didn't not know that fact. The information made him feel a little embarrassed though. "but please, where is Ace?"

Lee thought for a few seconds. "Last time he texted me, he was on the third floor. Try there."

"Ok, thank you." Zoro said before handing the phone back to Usopp. "Sorry about that." Zoro told Usopp before turning in what he hoped was the right direction. But it was the wrong direction.

Although, there may be some truth to the old West Blue saying that Gods favored idiots the most, because even with his bad sense of direction, Zoro managed to find Ace.

* * *

Shirahoshi fiddled with her skirt. She had found Ace, and needed to tell him something, but she really didn't want to interrupt. Her mother and father had always taught her to never speak while others were speaking, so Shirahoshi had made it a habit to never interrupt others. But the problem was, they just wouldn't_ stop._ Ace and the man that she recognized as Luffy's grandfather, was standing right in front of her, yelling at each other.

Right after Nami had gotten the text from Ace about his brother having gone missing, Nami and Vivi had set off to find Luffy. Robin had stayed in her room though, in case Luffy dropped by there, because apparently, after Ace had introduced the two of them, Luffy had taken to hanging around Robin's room whenever he was I trouble. And Shirahoshi had stayed with Robin. And all the while, an idea had occurred to her. But she wasn't very confident, even in the best circumstances, so she had failed to mention it until Nami and Vivi had left. Maybe it was because Robin was so calm and level headed, but Shirahoshi finally told her her idea. Even with all of her stuttering and mumbling, she had managed to explain to Robin her idea of using her dog, Megalo, to find Luffy.

Megalo had been her father's gift to her when she was younger. Like her mother, she had had bad health when she was younger, and Megalo was there to watch her and make sure that she was always in a stable condition. And if she wasn't, then Megalo would go and get help. But his great sense of smell had come in handy one day when in the middle of a flower viewing show her mother had taken her to, it had begun raining and she had gotten separated from her mother. It was only with Megalo's great sense of smell that she had been able to find her mother 30 minutes later. Since then. Megalo had been her constant companion.

So Shirahoshi was sure that Megalo would be able to find him. All she needed was the bag of dog treats in her room and something of Luffy's. So, Robin had told her to go find Ace and tell him her plan, while she went and got something of Luffy's. They were to meet outside of Shirahoshi's room. And she had found Ace… But now she had no idea what to do.

She tried desperately to speak again when a hand landed on her shoulder. Instead, any words that would have come out just came out as a squeak. She quickly glanced behind her, and the man quickly apologized for scaring her. It took her a moment, but she recognized him as the man from the boat. The one that Luffy had run into. Not a lot of people had green hair, after all. "Oh, it's you." she said quietly. "I'm sorry, I'll move."

"No need." Zoro narrowed his eye as he watched Ace and Garp play the 'blame game' with each other. "I'll go up when those two idiots stop fighting."

"They won't stop anytime soon." Shirahoshi said quietly. "I've been waiting for a while. I wanted to tell Ace something." she pushed her fingers together nervously. "I-I think I can help him find Luffy." Zoro immediately focused on her.

"What is it?" He asked a little too forcefully. Shirahoshi shrank away from him. "I'm sorry-" Zoro apologized again. "It's just that-" he paused," Luffy is… very important to me, and I want to help find him as soon as possible." And Shirahoshi, who had inherited some of her mother's empathy, immediately knew that he really, really, meant it.

"Ok," she said quietly. "Follow me."

* * *

Robin stood outside of Shirahoshi's door with a red shirt in hand. Behind the door she heard scratching and whining. She had only been there for about 20 minutes when she heard Shirahoshi's voice at the end of the hallway. "No- This way Zoro." Her voice echoed down the hall. A male voice answered her and the two of them came into view a few seconds later.

"We're ready now Ms. Robin!" Shirahoshi said in a slightly breathless manner. She unlocked the door and Megalo immediately stopped whining and scampered away from the door. His fluffy tail began beating against the carpet, happily, instead. "Stay Megalo!" Shirahoshi ordered in a surprisingly stern voice before she went in and a minute and then came back out with a bag of dog treats in hand. When Megalo saw the treats, he immediately seemed to focus more. Shirahoshi took the shirt from Robin and held it out in front of Megalo. The dog immediately began sniffing the shirt and after half a minute, Shirahoshi took it back. "Now that the scent is fresh in his mind, you should take him to Luffy and Ace's room so that he can find a trail. Shirahoshi instructed. Zoro and Robin nodded. So Shirahoshi handed the shirt back to Robin and the leash and treats to Zoro. "I'll go find Ace again and tell him about the plan." she said quietly.

"Thank you again." Zoro said immediately and his grip on the leash tightened slightly.

"You don't have to thank me." Shirahoshi said quietly. "Just-just find him please." And with a nod, Robin lead Zoro to Luffy's room. On the way there, she introduced herself to the unfamiliar man.

"Oh, you're Zoro then." Robin used the same tone the girl on the phone had earlier. "Interesting. I'm Robin." she smiled her usual blank smile.

"Pleasure's mine." Zoro, ever the gentleman, told her.

* * *

"So it's true." Robin smiled slightly when Megalo barked to signal that he recognized Luffy's scent outside of his doorway. "It seems that he found something." As strange as it looked, they followed Megalo downstairs until they finally reached the lobby. He sat down in front of the doors that lead outside. "This is troubling." Robin said quietly. To imagine Luffy outside in that storm… Zoro's mind immediately leapt to the worst conclusions. Robin watched the emotions playing over his face before she spoke again. "Well, since we're going outside, just wait here and I'll get us some coats." After all, it was a resort for the rich. It would have been surprising if there was something she _couldn't_ find there. And she was already walking away before he could stop her.

Zoro, once again left to his thoughts, glanced back at the doors nervously. It was almost pitch black out there because of the storm. The rain was still hammering against the glass and the hellish shriek of the wind was audible, even inside the hotel. Just where the hell could he even be? There were the sports courts out there, and maybe a few pools and equipment shacks, but nothing that would really protect him from the storm. Dread quickly began coating Zoro's insides. And by the time Robin came back, just 10 minutes later, Zoro was ready to charge into that storm, coat or no coat.

"My, my," she said unhelpfully. "By the look of you, I'm surprised that you even waited for me." and the humor in her voice made Zoro almost snarl at her. Instead he just snatched the large coat from her and quickly put it on. He barely waited for her before rushing out into the blackness.

* * *

Outside, the weather was turning even more hellish. The wind tore at his coat and the rain lashed against his face like ice cold blades. Everything was cold and soon every part of his body stung. He immediately envied Megalo's heavy coat. The coat that Robin had gotten him, though, was heavy enough to do its job. Behind him, Robin felt equally as harassed by the weather, but she bore it more gracefully. Neither of them spoke. Which was just as well because there was almost no chance of them being heard over the wind at all.

A few times he strayed from Megalo's path, but Robin's surprisingly firm hand on his arm always righted him. How Megalo managed to do anything, much less follow an old trail, seemed amazing. While he didn't even know which way he was running himself, Megalo seemed completely sure.

He didn't know how long he had been going but eventually, the roar of the ocean joined into the mix. The worst idea of all immediately tried clawing its way to the forefront of him mind, but Zoro wouldn't let it. No way. No how. His feet then hit the wood of the deck and up ahead, Megalo stopped at its edge. And suddenly, as if the floodgates had broken, the idea that Luffy might have drowned, or worse- thrown himself off of the dock- hit Zoro in a dizzying rush of fear and nausea. His knees almost buckled but Robin was there immediately. She shouted in his ear,

"Under the dock!" How she could even think to check there shocked Zoro, but he immediately ran over to the edge of the dock and looked underneath it. And for a few heart stopping moments he didn't see anything. When he finally spotted the red bundle at the back of the dock, where mostly dry land was, his heart did stop.

"Luffy!"

* * *

"Are you proud of yourself?" Katherine didn't even move from her spot on her bed when Jackie asked her question. She remained stubbornly on her side, facing the wall. "I won't just go away if you ignore me." Jackie folded her arms over her chest. She narrowed her eyes and glared. Now, she didn't have her brother's golden eyes, but that didn't make her look any less intimidating. "Now, tell me Kate, just what was going through your mind?"

"You know _exactly_ what was going through there!" Kate suddenly sat up and turned to stare at Jackie. There was a manic glow in her eyes. But her expression was one of forced pain. "I wanted to make him suffer. Both of them." She bared her teeth. "How dare he treat me like that!"

Jackie just shook her head. "Kate, you're being irrational." And to hear that, coming from a sociopath to a psychopath, seemed like the pinnacle of irony. And the contempt of Kate's face said as much. Jackie was undetermined. "And when we get back, I'm putting you on medication." she stated. "The same as mine." This time Kate got up all the way.

"No!" she hissed like a cat. "Do that and I will _kill_ you."

Jackie raised a slim eyebrow. "I doubt it. Besides, if you don't plan on taking the medication, then don't bother coming back with me." And to any normal person, Kate's expression would have looked like one of hurt or betrayal. But Jackie knew better. It was just more anger. "You can't survive always being mad and hating everybody. And reckless behavior like your behavior tonight will get you an early death." Jackie explained with as close to patience as she could muster.

"Oh really! Will your damn pills make me _feel_ things?!" Kate spat angrily. "Will I cry when other people cry? If something happens will I feel sad or fearful? Huh? Or will they restrain me? Limit me to dull things? Make everything less fun? Just what the hell will those pills do for me?!"

"They'll make it hurt less."

Kate paused at the simple response. Jackie's glare softened a little before she continued. "I know that you don't care about feeling emotions because I don't care either. But sometimes, don't you wonder at all? How it feels to not isolate yourself from everybody else? Right now, you consider yourself above everybody else, no? Like a queen on a throne? Yes, I can tell from you face. Right now, you're a queen on a cold throne ruling over an empty kingdom." Kate narrowed her eyes at the analogy. "Right now, people won't realize it. They might think that you're a bit odd, but most of them will be fooled completely. They'll think you're a star. But what if when you're old, if you even get any old seeing as so many of us die young, they start realizing. They realize that that queen in their midst is really a demon, waiting to strike. And your risky behavior will only fuel that? What kind of person stirs up a riot just so satisfy their own grudge, they'll ask. What then?"

Katherine lifted up her chin. "I don't care what they think of me now or in the future. Who cares about the opinions of ants anyway?"

"Yes you do. We crave attention. Everyone does. You and I are just less concerned with how we get it. And the pills will help. They won't give you emotions but they'll numb that void. You won't have to almost kill yourself to get that rush of excitement either. They'll make it easier." Jackie finished and watched Kate's next move. She had done her part, and now all that was left to see was if the cold queen would accept her hand, and her help, or if she would fall to a guillotine of her own creation.

* * *

Luffy jerked up slightly when he heard his name. Oddly enough, despite the fact that he must have drifted off, he felt really tired. He couldn't quiet remember where he was either. Someone called his name again, and a few things clicked in his head. "Su-Sur-o?" he slurred the name. his tongue felt thick in his mouth and his limbs felt like lead. He also couldn't stop shivering. There was the sound of a splash and then Zoro's face came into view.

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted, and Luffy blinked slowly at the loud noise. "You're soaked!" And Zoro immediately began carefully getting Luffy out of his jacket. Luffy, surprised by the course of events, tried wiggling away.

'Zoro what are you doing?' was what he had tried to say, but somewhere between his brain and his mouth, the message had gotten jumbled up. Instead it just came out as a confused groan. Zoro ignored him and finally succeeded in getting the jacket off of Luffy. Luffy shivered after that layer was removed, but he didn't have the strength in him to stop Zoro when Zoro went for his soaked shirt as well. He tried struggling again, but a hand on his back calmed him down.

"Don't move Luffy." Luffy turned his head slightly, and after a moment he realized that it was in fact Robin by his side. "You have light hypothermia, and Mr. Roronoa is trying to help." she said calmly. The words didn't quiet make it through Luffy's addled brain, but her kind tone did, and he immediately stopped struggling. Instead he turned his head to the side and rested his forehead on Robin's shoulder. His shivering had gotten more intense and Zoro's hands, once they got under his shirt, felt hot against his skin.

He closed his eyes and after a moment, he felt Robin move so that she was behind him. It took him a few seconds to realize after that that Zoro was taking his pants off. Once his pants were off, Luffy head Zoro mutter something and Robin's quiet chuckled followed afterwards. "Everything comes off Mr. Roronoa." Robin said close to his ear. He didn't understand what she meant, but Zoro apparently did because he finished up whatever he had to.

The hands against Luffy's back held him there for a few minutes until suddenly they were gone and Luffy felt himself being picked up. He quickly opened his eyes and found himself staring at the large scar that covered Zoro's chest. Zoro had one hand pressed against Luffy's back holding him there, and the other was under Luffy's knees, holding him bridal style. Zoro was warm. Really warm. So Luffy made a happy little noise and snuggled closer.

* * *

Robin promised to take Megalo and return to return with help for Zoro and Luffy before climbing back onto the dock. Zoro listened as her footsteps disappeared under the noise of the rain. She said that she would be back in an hour and a half tops, and all Zoro could do was trust that she would do as she had said. Meanwhile, he sat cross-legged with Luffy in his lap and only a pair of boxers on. His coat was wrapped around the two of them and they were sitting on the drier part of Luffy's coat. The rest of his and Luffy's clothes were piled up at the back of the docks, farthest away from the water. Luckily, the storm blew in the opposite direction of the docks and to they were mostly sheltered from the wind and rain. It seemed Luffy had gotten soaked because he'd actually gone into the water at some point. But he couldn't ask him why when he was as dazed as he was.

And so for a while, Zoro waited patiently for Luffy to gain his bearings. When he had first found him, the poor guy couldn't even talk straight and seemed to have no idea where he even was. But now he seemed to be clearing up. He glanced down when Luffy raised his head and glanced at their surroundings. "Zoro-"

"Why did you leave?" Zoro cut Luffy off coldly. It was hard enough already just keeping himself from shaking Luffy for being stupid, so controlling his tone as well felt impossible. And Luffy turned his head away at his tone. "Luffy…"

"I didn't." Luffy said slowly. His voice was muffled because he'd pressed his face against Zoro's chest. "I just came out here to calm down. I-I like being near the sea and being near the docks calms me down. I didn't think it would get so bad out here."

And Zoro barely stopped himself from snorting. Right now it felt like Luffy hadn't thought at all. Because seriously, going out in the middle of a bad storm like this? If he had been alone out here any longer then something even worse might have happened. "Well," Zoro sighed. "Ace is running around looking for you and now Robin's going back alone to tell him where you are."

"I don't wanna go back." Luffy said quietly. Zoro glanced down at him and Luffy looked up at Zoro. "Ace- right now I don't want to be near him. Or grandpa. They both- they both won't stop shouting." Luffy frowned. And Zoro asked a question that had been bothering him.

"Why did your brother get so angry anyway?" He understood that Ace was suddenly faced with a hellish choice but Luffy seemed, at least right now, pretty unaffected.

"Because he doesn't want to leave the company he works at." Luffy said bluntly. Zoro raised an eyebrow to indicate that he didn't quite understand and so Luffy explained it a little more. "Well, when me and Ace grew up, it was usually just the two of us. We had a third brother once. His name was Sabo, but he died. And so we were always alone. The woman we lived with was a criminal named Dadan and she only watched us because Garp made her. Usually she was out at night drinking. And Grandpa rarely came around. So me and Ace never really grew up with a mom or dad. So Ace was a really bad guy until about 5 years ago. That's when he met Whitebeard. Apparently, Ace tried stealing something from one of Whitebeard's guys and Whitebeard threatened to have him arrested if his didn't come work for him afterwards. After that, Ace said that Whitebeard was like a dad to him. He started calling him 'Pops' and everything." Now, Zoro was pretty sure that more had happened, _a lot_ more actually, but Luffy's child-like way of telling stories always left a lot to be desired.

"And that's why he doesn't want to be a marine?' Zoro guessed. Luffy shook his head.

"Nope. He doesn't want to be a marine because grandpa is a marine and Ace doesn't want to be like him at all." It was… kinda a stupid reason, but Zoro accepted it.

"And you don't mind being a marine?" Zoro tried asking. Luffy shrugged.

"I guess not. When I was younger I wanted to be a pirate though!" he said unexpectedly.

"A pirate?" Zoro asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah!" Luffy said a little loud. "King of the pirates even!" Luffy gave a tired chuckle. "Me and Ace and Sabo used to pretend all the time that we were pirates but Ace always got made because I always made his dad the ex-king of the pirates." The grin on Luffy's face spread. "Ya know, I just always thought that it would be cool to just said around, doing pirate things like having adventures and singing great songs." Now, when Zoro thought of pirates, he immediately thought of pillaging, raping, and looting, but apparently Luffy's idea of pirating was much more pg-rated.

"But why the king of the pirates?" Zoro asked.

"Because he had the most freedom of course." Luffy said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The pirate king had the freedom to do whatever he wanted, eat whatever he wanted, and go wherever he wanted. And for a little boy who had spent most of his life caged in by his grandfather and isolated in a little mountain town in the East Blue, freedom was everything. And for a moment, Zoro imagined what that would have been like.

To be a pirate sailing around in search of freedom instead of wealth. One that didn't hurt people but didn't really help them either, because too much helping would have made them heroes instead of pirates. Pirates that could go anywhere. And with Luffy as the captain, they would make one hell of a crew.

"That sounds nice." Zoro said after some silence.

"Doesn't it?" Luffy asked and he reached up and across and curled his hand around Zoro's neck before he pressed even closer to Zoro. His close proximity reminded Zoro of something.

"Which reminds me," he said, dreading what he was about to say. "I'm sorry about this afternoon. What that girl did was wrong and it's my fault."

Luffy didn't move his face away from Zoro's chest, but he did speak. "That was really Zoro's girlfriend then?" he asked.

"Ex-girlfriend." Zoro said suddenly. For some reason, he had to clear that up now. And for a few seconds, Luffy's arm tightened a little against Zoro's neck.

"Good."

The words were out of his mouth before Luffy could even think to stop them. Zoro's head snapped down and he watched Luffy in surprise. "I-I'm selfish," Luffy paused and began drawing a pattern against Zoro's neck with his finger. A shiver went up and down Zoro's spine. "And I really like Zoro- except, I didn't really know what 'like' was, so I was just happy being Zoro's friend. And-and I realized when I saw you in Shanks' office, that I wanted to be more than just Zoro's friend. I don't want anyone else to be by Zoro's side like that." and after he finished, Luffy felt exposed and selfish as hell.

"Me too." Zoro said, before suddenly pulling Luffy up so that instead of lying in Zoro's lap, Luffy was sitting up. He then grabbed Luffy's shoulders and pulled him in so that their lips met in the middle. Zoro kissed him with a single minded determination that left Luffy breathless and confused at the end of it. Zoro looked away the instant after he'd back and Luffy prodded his cheek. "Zoro, what-"

"That's why my ex attacked you today. She realized how I felt about you before I even did. I made her angry- well madder than usual."

Luffy, still confused, wiggled around until he had succeeded on straddling both of Zoro's thighs. Luffy then, not too gently, cupped Zoro's face between his hands and used a little force to turn Zoro's face so that they were staring at each other. Zoro tried being stubborn about the whole thing but a determined Luffy was a force to be reckoned with. Luffy's hands were still cold and Zoro's cheeks tingled at the contact. "What do you mean?" Luffy asked, looking Zoro in the eye.

Zoro sighed. "It means that I love you." And that was it. No roses. No sunsets. No fireworks in the background. It was nice and simple. Just like Zoro.

But it was also effective.

Luffy sucked in a breath and his cheeks turned pink. He thought back to his earlier possessive thoughts about Zoro, and then his brain made a rare leap of logic. "Well, then I-I think love Zoro, too." He said less confidently then he had meant to.

"Think?" Zoro asked in a teasing tone. "What a weak declaration." And Luffy frowned.

"I do love Zoro then!" Luffy challenged. He brazenly surged forward and wrapped his arms around Zoro's neck. Their kiss began with as a closed mouth one but Luffy quickly took control and swiped his tongue along Zoro's lips. Zoro immediately opened up and Luffy's tongue dived inside. He might not have been very interested in things like kissing and sex before, but no one could say that Luffy wasn't a fast learner when he wanted to be. And so Luffy tipped Zoro's head back and Zoro grabbed Luffy's thighs as Luffy deepened the kiss. A little while later, Luffy drew away, his cheeks red, gasping for air. Although Zoro didn't look any better on his end. His usually tanned face had a nice red tinge to it. Luffy, always a greedy one, leaned down for more, but Zoro held up a hand.

"As fun as that would be," Zoro said slightly breathlessly. "We don't know when Robin will come back. And the least thing I want to happen if for her to find us in any kind of… situation." Luffy blinked and looked down and seemed to remember that he was, in fact, nude. And Zoro was nude too, except for his boxers. Curious, Luffy grabbed the waistband of Zoro's boxers with his pointer finger and began drawing them back. "See." Zoro grabbed Luffy's hand. "And that's why we're not going any farther." There was a note of finality in his voice and Luffy recognized it enough to know that he wasn't going to win this argument. So instead he just readjusted himself so that he was sitting with his back to Zoro's chest, with Zoro's coat wrapped around the both of them.

In an effort to calm them both down, Zoro began talking about the first thing that came to mind. "I want to open up a dojo chain one day." he said almost out of nowhere. But he was with Luffy, who didn't think random changes of conversation were strange in the least. Luffy just tilted his head up and watched Zoro's face. "Well, swordsmanship is becoming a more common practice and I believe it would be, at least enjoyable, teaching others how to-"

"Fight!" Luffy said out of nowhere. Suddenly he was trying to get up, but Zoro's arms tightened around him like a bear trap. "We never got to have our fight Zoro." Luffy whined when it was clear that Zoro wasn't going to let him get up. Luffy sounded extremely disappointed but Zoro couldn't help laughing.

"Next time." He said. And Luffy like 'Next time' because that meant that this wouldn't be the last time he saw Zoro. That after they left this place they would keep in touch.

So Luffy really, really liked 'Next Time'.

So Until Then.

The End

-0Blue-Bird0

* * *

*sits in a corner and cries* wow, writing the end of this was harder than I thought it would be. This is my first finished multi-chapter story and even though I felt like dropping it at some points, I'm really happy I finished it.

And even though I'm sure that some people will be sad that I didn't clear up everything at the end, I think it's better to leave everything open like this. It's more realistic and this way people can decide for themselves things like 'Did Kate take Jackie's offer' or 'Will Zoro's family (or Luffy's for that matter) ever work out all of their issues?'.

That being said, I hope everybody loved this chapter and loved my story. The little epilogue will be uploaded sometime before Monday.

**But just a few little fun facts about this story:** Wow! I had no idea about how much the story would change. Like in the original, I meant for it to be revealed that Kate had an abusive family and that Jackie (or Jade in that one) was making Zoro marry her so that her family would leave her alone. At the end of the story, Kate then would get away from her father (she wouldn't end up with Zoro though) and she would end up working at the resort. Lee would take her under her wing. And with Sanji and Usopp, Usopp's old abusive boyfriend Kuro would come back into the picture (wow so melodramatic) and I forgot where that idea would have lead to but I remember it involved heartfelt declarations over karaoke (wow, new fic idea maybe?). The character relationships changed a lot too (not the pairings but Nami's no longer related to Zoro and other family was added in) But I think the biggest change was the ending. In the other story, I stopped right before I got to the ending. The ending was supposed to be Aisa got lost in an island cave during a storm and Luffy went in to save her and got lost. And then later Zoro and Nix went in after them and hypothermia snuggling occurred. This way at least, no Aisas were harmed in the making of this fic. The fic also ended less dramatically that I thought it would. That being said, I'm still glad so many people liked both of these stories.

So, one more post after this and Star Crossed will be over.

But speaking of Star Crossed, I never explained but the title came from a line in Romeo and Juliet where Romeo and Juliet are described as 'star crossed lovers', lovers meant to have a relationship that could never last. Luffy and Zoro certainly aren't star crossed (fated maybe, but not hopeless) but I liked the idea.

So after this, I hope you check out my future stories. I hope to write more pairings (ShanLu, AceLu, CrocoLu, and Sanuso *in addition to some Toriko fanfics* are at the top of my list, but I might even branch off to pairings that I'm not exactly comfortable with like LuHan or SanNam just to give them a try. So I'd really like to hear about you guy's favorite pairings besides ZoLu!)


	18. Forevermore

10 years later

It's nearly noon now and the airplane has yet to land. There are people there, waiting at the gate. Waiting for their family and friends. According to the TV screens scattered around in the terminal, the plane should have pulled in a few minutes ago. Instead the little screens just read 'delayed'. Some people begin to get restless. They have places to be, and parking is expensive here. But they wait all the same. Many of them are holding signs with their loved ones names written on them. Many of the people holding the signs are young women and children. All of them are waiting in anticipation.

One man stands out from the crowd. His hair is a dull shade of green, and three golden earrings hang from his left ear. There are scars all over his body, but one of the more noticeable ones, is the one over his left eye. He hasn't been able to see out of that eye for years. He's an attractive man, but he lacks any real charm. The one thing he doesn't lack is an intimidating presence. Even now, people hesitate to get to close to him. But, he's just standing there, even more patient than the rest of them. Because years of swordsmanship and years of distance have taught him nothing else if not patience. He's no longer as impulsive as he used to be, and he's lost most of the temper that he had in his youth.

Despite the fact that he's only 31 years old, he acts much older. His name is Roronoa Zoro and he is currently aiming to be the best swordsman in the world.

But soon the crowd's patience is rewarded. The TV screens announce that their flight has landed, and soon many people are leaving the flight. Some of the people just weave through the crowd of onlookers, intent on leaving the airport or making their next flight. Others find themselves in teary embraces and happy reunions. There are many servicemen on the flight. All of them are Marine men, and they all proudly bear their branch's insignia on their uniforms. But for a while, Zoro doesn't see the one he's looking for.

Only after the crowd has thinned out does he heard that familiarly obnoxious laugh. And finally he emerges from the walkway. In addition to his own bag, he's carrying several others, and a small family is following after him. Once they're off the plane, he hands them all of their luggage and they thank him. Then they disappear into the crowd. And until then, Zoro hadn't moved from his spot. He'd been standing still in the same place the entire wait. But now he moves forward. Zoro grabs the man's arm and pulls him into a close hug. It doesn't feel nearly close enough, but there's only so much they can do in public. "Hey Luffy." he says a bit gruffly.

There's a thud as Luffy drops his bag and wraps his arms around Zoro's torso. One of those arms is fake, Zoro remembers. At one point during one of his deployments, Luffy came in close contact with a bomb and lost one of his arms. But it was amazing what they could do with prosthetics these days. Luffy had told him several times after the incident that he didn't even really feel different. There was that phantom limb feeling, but Luffy assured him that he had more or less gotten used to it after a while.

Luffy's gotten taller too. He's not as tall as Zoro is, and he's not as widely built, but his body is solid and Zoro doubts that he has any body fat left on him. His hair is also cropped short, and he has a little stubble on his chin and there are bags under his eyes. But he looks so damn happy that Zoro can't help himself.

Zoro leans down and entices Luffy into a quick kiss. But he pulls away before it gets heated. Luffy's a little put out by it, but he's happy enough just being by Zoro. Other than the holidays and few months between each deployment, they hadn't seen much of each other over the last few years. There were always phone calls and video chats to stay in touch, but nothing beat human contact.

Luffy slip his real hand into Zoro's grip and started pulling him towards the baggage area. Zoro's sense of direction had somewhat gotten better over the last few years, but not by much. Immediately, Luffy starts asking him about everyone. "How are Sanji and Usopp doing?" was his first question.

"They're fighting or something." Zoro grunts. It's one of their usual spats and in the meantime, Sanji is staying with him. Zoro fully intends to kick him out when he gets back. "But they'll get over it." He knows that when he kicks him out, Sanji will go crawling back to Usopp, they'll make up, and then act like teenaged idiots together again. They've been married for a few years now, and Zoro doesn't know if being married to Sanji made Usopp some kind of saint or just a plain idiot. Luffy asks about his family and Zoro's doesn't go into too much detail there either. Perona, at one point a few years ago, had modeled for a Lolita company, and now she was switching to a new label. Kuina worked with him mainly, helping train new recruits and she had even begun competing again. They years without practice had done quite a number on her swordsmanship, but she was making up for it. Tashigi was off overseas with her husband (some cop named Smoker) tracking down criminals, and occasionally collecting rare swords that had been traded on the black market. All of them were more or less fine. "What about Ace?" he asked back.

"You won't believe it!" Luffy suddenly said as if Zoro had reminded him of something important. They paused for a few minutes while Luffy got his bags off of the luggage conveyor belt. "Nami and Ace are getting married!" Zoro had never met Nami, but from what he'd heard about her, she was a pretty good person. As for Ace, it seemed a bit surprising. He said as much. "I know right." Luffy chuckled. "Ace doesn't seem like the type to just settle down and get married but he said Nami was special, and they've known each other for a long time too." he nodded his head wisely. Ace had gotten out of the military only a year before him. Luffy then began talking about Shanks, and then some of the people he'd met on tour.

All the while, Zoro just focused on memorizing every detail about Luffy that he could. The way he laughed. The way his voice rose slightly when he got excited. How he would wave his arms when he spoke. Or how he always cocked his head to the side when he couldn't understand something. It would have been cliché to call him beautiful, but he was in a certain way. His personality was like the summer months, warm and inviting, while his presence was like being next to a fire, intense and slightly unpredictable.

From the sound of things, they would be visiting Ace soon to congratulate him on his engagement. Zoro gave Luffy's hand a little squeeze and smiled. The timing for the visit worked out then.

The two of them left the airport and Zoro somehow managed to lead them back to his car. They loaded Luffy's bags into the trunk, and Luffy sprinted over to the passenger side of the car before opening the door up and hopping in. Zoro did the same on the driver's side. Once inside, Zoro started the car and was about to pull out when he caught Luffy's eye. When they made eye contact Luffy smiled even wider. "I love you Zoro." he said quietly and Zoro grabbed his hand again. He pressed a few kisses to Luffy's knuckles before returning the smile.

"I love you too Luffy."

He thought back to the little black box in his dresser at his apartment. Inside the box where two identical silver rings. Yes, now seemed like a perfect time to visit Ace, and maybe Shanks too.

He needed to get some blessings after all.

* * *

Eheheh, I didn't quite expect the fic to end like that, but now I want to write it! Domestic ZoLu! But if I do, then they means that I might never get rid of this story XD

But once again, a big thank you to everyone who's read/reviewed/alerted/or faved this story. Many fanfic writers might not get the chance to say this, but those little shows of support mean so much to us writers. It might not feel like much if you just say something like 'great story' or 'I liked it' but it really does make us writers feel better. So please, in the future, try to review any stories you like. You never know. You might just make that writers day.

But anyway, thanks again so much for reading and following this story to the end. Until next time!


End file.
